It’s been almost a year since the Food and Drug Administration approved the first genetic treatments for sickle cell disease. So far, only a few patients have received the long-awaited treatments.

The disease, which predominantly affects patients of color, can damage the body in ways that can make it difficult to have a child. But patients don't always have access to fertility care.

The Code Breaker profiles Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist key to the development of CRISPR, and examines the technology's exciting possibilities and need for oversight.

As the first patient to receive an experimental treatment that relied on the gene-editing technique CRISPR continues to do well 17 months later, more patients seem to be benefiting, too.