The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna.They developed the Crispr tool, which can change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with high precision. Emmanuelle Charpentier (Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, Germany),Jennifer A. Doudna (University of California, Berkeley, USA) “for the development of a method for genome editing”
Dr. Charpentier and Dr. Doudna, only the sixth and seventh women in history to win a chemistry prize, did much of the pioneering work to turn molecules made by microbes into a tool for customizing genes — whether in microbes, plants, animals or even humans.
Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna have discovered one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. Using these, researchers can change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with extremely high precision. This technology has had a revolutionary impact on the life sciences, is contributing to new cancer therapies and may make the dream of curing inherited diseases come true.
Researchers need to modify genes in cells if they are to find out about life’s inner workings.Announcement of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was done by Professor Göran K. Hansson, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, on 7 October 2020.