Jennifer Doudna
Biochemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 for CRISPR gene editing
Born 1964
Photo: Duncan.Hull · CC BY-SA 4.0
«What started as a curiosity-driven, fundamental discovery project has now become a breakthrough strategy used by countless researchers.»
Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier turned a bacterial immune system into CRISPR-Cas9, a tool that lets scientists cut and rewrite DNA at a chosen point. It is already curing sickle cell disease and has changed what biology can attempt.
Key achievements
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2020, for CRISPR genome editing
- Founded the Innovative Genomics Institute at Berkeley
Universities
Berkeley, California
Professor of chemistry and molecular biology, where the CRISPR-Cas9 work was done.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Took her PhD in biochemistry in 1989 under Jack Szostak, a future Nobel laureate.
Facts
- A high school careers adviser told her girls did not do science; she has cited it as the moment she decided to prove otherwise.
- She grew up in Hawaii and became fascinated by biology partly through the strange plants and animals found only there.
- She has been an outspoken advocate of limits on editing human embryos, calling for an international moratorium.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.