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Dr. Yoon stated that VIPR is like a 'gun that viruses are pointing at each other,' which, if stolen by bacteria, becomes an immune system.

Human DNA contains many viral genes.

Researchers suggest that CRISPR evolved after microbes adapted a viral weapon system for their own purposes.

Rafael Pinilla-Redondo stated he would be surprised if VIPR is the last unexpected genetic targeting system to be discovered.

Researchers found that VIPR molecules, like CRISPR, targeted viral DNA.

Dr. Doudna and her colleagues propose that the VIPR system originated more than four billion years ago.

Dr. Doudna and her students hypothesize that the VIPR system is a weapon used by viruses against other viruses.

A virus with VIPR genes has the ability to shut down a rival virus.

VIPR proteins wrap around genes, whereas CRISPR proteins chop them up.

Dr. Peter Yoon is a member of the technical staff at the AI company Anthropic.

Dr. Yoon and his colleagues named the newly discovered proteins VIPR.

Dr. Peter Yoon and Kenneth Loi sifted through 2.3 million proteins and found hundreds that resembled CRISPR molecules.

In experiments, infected cells produced VIPR proteins that joined with viral RNA molecules.

Almost all of the CRISPR-like proteins identified by Dr. Yoon and Mr. Loi came from viruses.

VIPR molecules are smaller than CRISPR molecules.

Philip Kranzusch stated that the small size of VIPR makes the systems transformative tools for genome engineering.

Researchers wrote in two papers in the journal Science that the VIPR system is over four billion years old and is the evolutionary ancestor of CRISPR.

Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist at UC Berkeley and an author of the studies, shared the 2020 Nobel Prize for her work on CRISPR.

The first CRISPR systems were discovered in the 1990s.

In 2024, researchers concluded that the common ancestors of all living things possessed CRISPR molecules.