The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was jointly awarded on Wednesday to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for the development of a method for genome editing in 2012.
“This year’s prize is about rewriting the code of life,” Goran K. Hansson, the secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said as he announced the names of the laureates.
Dr. Charpentier and Dr. Doudna discovered the Crispr-Cas 9 tool, a kind of genetic scissors that allows researchers to alter the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with extremely high precision.The 2020 Nobel Prizes ›
Claes Gustafsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said, “There is enormous power in this genetic tool, which affects us all. It has not only revolutionized basic science but also resulted in innovative crops and will lead to groundbreaking new medical treatments.”
Both women are featured on the PBS program NOVA.
The 2020 Nobel Prizes
Updated Oct. 6, 2020 from the New York Times
- See all of the 2020 winners here.
- Drs. Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice received the prize for medicine for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus.
- Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez received the physics prize for their discoveries that have improved understanding of the universe, including work on black holes.
- Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna were awarded the chemistry prize for their work on genome editing.