Entrepreneurs are taking genetic-editing technology from the lab to the clinic with grand ambitions. But who owns the patents? : When Rachel Haurwitz started her biology Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, the award-winning biochemist Jennifer Doudna suggested Haurwitz investigate part of a bacterial immune system. She studied how microbes store genetic mementos of attacking viruses and recognize them to fight off future assaults. “It was an esoteric project,” Haurwitz says. It’s esoteric no more.