Pulitzer Prize-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D., and acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns will collaborate on the new documentary inspired by Mukherjee’s best-selling 2016 book, The Gene: An Intimate History.

We are living in an era when humans are beginning to read and write this ‘code of codes’ — our own code — with astonishing and unprecedented facility. Drawing elements from history, science, anthropology, ethics and medicine, this Ken Burns production will demonstrate how our understanding of genetics has evolved over the decades, and how deeply our future will be impacted by it. From the birth of genetics in the pea-garden of a modest monastery in Central Europe to the sweeping excesses of eugenics in Germany and the United States, from the stories of scientists who first discovered the structure of DNA to the recent attempts to change the genetic material of human embryos, from the identification of the first genes that cause human illnesses such as cancer and Cystic Fibrosis to the landmark experiments that led to the mapping of the human genome, this film will bring an immensely powerful and impactful science — and its enormous influence on culture — to life on the screen.”