Adeno-associated virus (AAV)–mediated donor delivery has substantially improved the efficiency of genome editing across a wide range of tissues and cell types. By enabling robust delivery of donor templates to cells that are traditionally difficult to transfect or electroporate, AAV vectors have expanded the accessibility of homology-directed repair (HDR) integration strategies. This increased delivery efficiency has accelerated the generation of CRISPR-edited cells and genetically modified organisms, reducing timelines from months to weeks in many systems. As a result, AAV donor delivery has become a key driver of scalability and speed in genome engineering workflows, enabling faster iteration in functional genomics, disease modeling, and therapeutic development.
