根据《In CRISPR Fight, Co-Inventor Says Broad Institute》，张锋实验室的一个

研究生林帅亮（Shuailiang Lin音译）在寄给Jennifer Doudna的一封电子邮件中进行了指控，说尽人皆知的MIT哈佛机构声称发明了CRISPR基因编辑是不准确的，而且该组织误导了专利局。Jennifer Doudna为伯克利加利福尼亚大学教授，是在科学和商业广泛使用的CRISPR发明权的主要竞争对手。而且还说“我认为这是一种革命性的技术……不应该是错误的专利。我们没有做出来之前看到你的文章，真遗憾，”另见国内新闻《中国留学生倒戈邮件曝光 基因魔剪专利之争升级》。

另据《The unsung heroes of CRISPR : Nature News &...》，Giedrius Gasiunas 的投稿论文（也是做CRISPR–Cas9）可能在被拒稿的同时，被人复制后发表（In 2012, the lab sent a paper to Cell, where it was rejected without review. Gasiunas then submitted the paper to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and waited. A few months later, while his paper was still under review, the now-legendary Jinek paper appeared in Science. The two papers had key differences, but reached similar conclusions. Gasiunas had been scooped）。