Bacteria in microbial communities are constantly under pressure from bacteriophages and have inventively developed a large innate and adaptive defence arsenal to fight back the phage and survive in a red queen hypothesis scenario. In the last 10 years, the understanding innate and adaptive defence mechanisms has led to an explosion of important biotechnology developments, which include CRISPR technology. In this presentation, we will share our experience how this knowledge investigating antiviral immunity in prokaryotes has been harnessed for RNA biotechnology development. We will detail the important challenges regarding invention disclosure and patenting in such a high competitive space. We will finally share the numerous translation outcomes that has arisen from our elucidation key basic science questions in the field of prokaryotic immunity and CRISPR biology.