--- title: Researchers Perform First Surgery on Human Genome description: It turns out the human genome can be snipped and tucked and manipulated surgically, just like any organ canonical: https://time.com/4078582/surgery-human-genome/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-19T19:00:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:41.434Z article:section: Health og:title: Researchers Perform First Surgery on Human Genome og:description: It turns out the human genome can be snipped and tucked and manipulated surgically, just like any organ og:url: https://time.com/4078582/surgery-human-genome/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a9a8430e99a0cee/698868e3ab6d7769406a6bc9/gettyimages-170416551.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4625 og:image:height: 2602 og:image:alt: 170416551 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Researchers Perform First Surgery on Human Genome twitter:description: It turns out the human genome can be snipped and tucked and manipulated surgically, just like any organ twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a9a8430e99a0cee/698868e3ab6d7769406a6bc9/gettyimages-170416551.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Researchers Perform First Surgery on the Human Genome > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=37d6d910-e312-4453-93c1-f8ad6b49cc7f&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Next Gen Leaders: Hosam Zawowi, Australia [Watch (HLS stream): Next Gen Leaders: Hosam Zawowi, Australia](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/POzrBsHe.m3u8) (2:02)  _Published 2021-04-27_  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 19, 2015 7:00 PM UTC  Two scientists fixing dna Two scientists fixing dna Fotosearch—Getty Images/Fotosearch RF  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 19, 2015 7:00 PM UTC Ever since the human genome was [mapped in 2001](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,997338,00.html), scientists have been finding new and novel ways to manipulate it: intervening to remove offending genes or DNA sequences that can contribute to disease, and fixing mutations that can affect people’s health. As remarkable as those advances have been, however, they have only occurred on one dimension—the linear sequence of DNA. Now scientists report in the _Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences_ their success in manipulating the genome in 3D. The human genome that’s squeezed into every microscopic cell in the body measures more than two meters long. To stuff it into a space just a few microns wide (the human hair, by comparison, is 40 to 50 microns in diameter) requires some masterful origami-like transformation. **MORE:** [Don’t Trash These Genes](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2126638,00.html) ### See the Top 20 Winners of Nikon Small World Microscopic Photography Contest  Eye of a honey bee (Apis mellifera) covered in dandelion pollen at 120x magnification. Ralph Claus Grimm  Mouse colon colonized with human microbiota at 63x magnification. Kristen Earle, Gabriel Billings, KC Huang and Justin Sonnenburg  Intake of a humped bladderwort (Utricularia gibba), a freshwater carnivorous plant at 100x magnification. Dr. Igor Siwanowicz  Lab-grown human mammary gland organoid at 100x magnification. Daniel H. Miller and Ethan S. Sokol  Live imaging of perfused vasculature in a mouse brain with glioblastoma taken using the Optical Frequency Domain Imaging System. Dr. Giorgio Seano and Dr. Rakesh K. Jain  Spore capsule of a moss (Bryum sp.) Henri Koskinen  Starfish imaged using confocal microscopy at 10x magnification. Evan Darling  Nerves and blood vessels in a mouse ear skin at 10x magnification. Dr. Tomoko Yamazaki  Young buds of Arabidopsis (a flowering plant) at 40x magnification. Dr. Nathanael Prunet  Clam shrimp (Cyzicus mexicanus), live specimen ,at 25x magnification. Ian Gardiner  Fern sorus at varying levels of maturity at 20x magnification. Rogelio Moreno Gill  Developing sea mullet (Mugil cephalus) embryos at 40x magnification. Hannah Sheppard-Brennand  Tentacles of a carnivorous plant (Drosera sp.) at 20x magnification. Jose R. Almodovar  Australian grass (Austrostipa nodosa) seed at 5x magnification. Viktor Sykora  Anther of a flowering plant (Arabidopsis thaliana) at 20x magnification. Dr. Heiti Paves  Feeding rotifers (Floscularia ringens) at 50x magnification. Charles Krebs  Black witch-hazel (Trichodactylus crinitus) leaf producing crystals to defend against herbivores at 100x magnification. David Maitland  Hairyback worm (Chaetonotus sp.) and algae (Micrasterias sp.) at 400x magnification. Roland Gross  Planktonic larva of a horseshoe worm (phoronid) at 450x magnification. Dr. Richard R. Kirby  Suction cups on the diving beetle (Dytiscus sp.) foreleg at 50x magnification. Frank Reiser In the study, Erez Lieberman Aiden, director of the center for genome architecture at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University, and his colleagues describe how DNA performs this shrinking act. It turns out that there is a sequence in the genome—a DNA “word”—that signals when a long string of DNA should turn and form a loop. The end of that loop is signaled by the same word but in reverse, a mirror image of the original. Where these matched-up words appear on the genome determines which genes are exposed in a relatively accessible place and therefore which genes are more active. Loops formed in cells in the heart, for example, will be different from ones generated in skin cells or bone cells. “We have the same genome in all of our cells, yet cells perform totally different functions,” says Aiden. “That has to do with the fact that different genes are on and off in different cells. How that is managed is in part by the loops of DNA that they form. Think of an origami-like situation—you start with a blank sheet of paper, but whether you can fold that into a hat, plane or crane is a matter of folds. And its function—as a hat, plane or crane—also depends on those folds.” Not only did Aiden and his colleagues discover the way that loops form, they also conducted experiments to show that they can manipulate where these loops form and potentially change which genes are active and which are silent in specific cells. Conditions like Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, for example, may be partly explained by such abnormalities in the way chromosomes loop. Children born with the condition tend to be larger than their peers and develop larger abdomens due to differences in the way that certain genes inherited from both parents on chromosome 11 are expressed. These findings hint at the potential of treating such conditions, although more work has to be done to better understand how 3D factors affect genetic diseases. But combining the ability to change DNA sequences in both a linear way, as well as a three-dimensional way, could provide a rich new way of treating certain diseases. “By changing the way the DNA is folded, we can change what the genome is doing,” says Aiden. “We can change the function of a cell. 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