As investors who, thanks to technology, have practically unlimited information immediately at their fingertips, it's easy to forget the element of time in the implementation of new discoveries.
For example;
it took Apple over ten years to combine technologies of the cell phone and internet. First reviews of the iPhone were 'meh, one of many.' Not really any 'new' technology in an iPhone. An app may be a new invention, but is it new technology?
What 'new' technology has Google brought out since, say, 2004? Yet the stock price has soared since then. Perhaps the same could be said of Microsoft or Amazon, too. Dunno. But their stocks have soared in the past 15 years. Is Netflix new technology or just a new use of existing technology? Same for, say, Airbnb.
CRISPR-Cas9 is new technology. The post-doc guy that you met in 2015 had been trying to figure out how to implement the new technology for years, if I understood your comment correctly. Yet, HE wasn't able to do it, even with oversight and guidance of other presumably smart people. That's how hard it is to get this stuff figured out. But, if you can crack the nut, find the way to implement this new technology, fame and riches beyond one's wildest dreams await. We're in the early stages, just the beginning.
I'm just an investor, along for the ride, hoping to get others aboard the greatest wave of the 21st Century and perhaps my lifetime.