Paper
A cut above: pair that developed CRISPR earns historic award.
Published Oct 15, 2020 · Jon Cohen
Science
12
Citations
0
Influential Citations
Abstract
Decades typically pass before a discovery leads to a Nobel Prize, but the chemistry award last week celebrated two scientists who, a short 8 years ago, described how to transform an obscure bacterial immune mechanism into the most powerful genome editor ever devised: CRISPR. The award, to Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens and Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, marks the first time a Nobel Prize in science has gone to an all-female team. It also comes amid a high-stakes patent fight over the revolutionary genetic "scissors"—which promise to have an impact on medicine, crops, livestock, pest control, and even climate change. Other pioneering researchers in the once-small CRISPR field applauded the decision, noting that although many investigators helped push the research forward, Charpentier and Doudna made the key discovery that has led CRISPR to become a ubiquitous lab tool today.
CRISPR, a powerful genome editor, has revolutionized medicine, crops, livestock, pest control, and climate change, making it the first all-female team to win a Nobel Prize in science.
Full text analysis coming soon...