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Eight years ago, the American Jennifer Doudna and the French Emmanuelle Charpentier developed a method with which the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms can be changed with extreme precision. The procedure is called the CRISPR / Cas9 method and is often also called Crispr-Cas gene scissors because it cuts sections of DNA. The two biochemists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work. This was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
Crispr-Cas gene scissors can be considered a molecular tool. Doudna and Charpentier discovered it by accident while studying streptococcal bacteria. In fact, they wanted to develop a new antibiotic. There is no doubt that genetic scissors have revolutionized genetics. But the fact that Doudna and Charpentier received the Nobel Prize only eight years after their discovery is quite surprising. Scientists usually receive the award at the end of their career.
Charpentier researches for the Max Planck Society, as does Nobel Prize winner in Physics Reinhard Genzel
Genetic engineers and cell biologists can use scissors to study the functions of various genes much more easily than before. The Crispr-Cas gene scissors also allow plants to be modified to be more robust against pests or periods of drought. Scientists and agricultural corporations have long been working on custom crops using genetic scissors. In medicine, the genetic tool enables new cancer therapies and could also help cure inherited diseases.
Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier, born in 1968, studied biology, microbiology and genetics in Paris in the 1980s. After research stays in the USA, Charpentier worked as a professor at the University of Vienna. In 2013 he transferred to the Hannover Medical School and the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig before arriving at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. Today Charpentier heads the Max Planck Research Center for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin. After Reinhard Genzel, a researcher at the Max Planck Society, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday, this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry is linked to the renowned Society for Basic Research.
The collaboration started in a cafe in Puerto Rico
Jennifer Anne Doudna was born in Washington DC in 1964, but spent most of her childhood in Hawaii. Doudna once told a university magazine that the island’s exotic plants sparked her enthusiasm for nature. She studied biochemistry in Los Angeles and later received her doctorate from Harvard Medical School. Today she is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
According to a press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Charpentier’s collaboration with Doudna began at a cafe in Puerto Rico on the second day of a scientific conference in 2012. This is where the two researchers met. The next day, Charpentier and Doudna walked through Puerto Rico’s old town, the message read. Charpentier suggested a collaboration during the walk: He wanted to know more about Cas9, a specific protein that apparently can help cut DNA. It was the beginning of a successful collaboration that has now been awarded the highest award in science.
This year, the Nobel Prize winners are endowed with ten million Swedish crowns per category, which corresponds to about 950,000 euros. The year before, it was a million kronor less. At that time, three battery researchers received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry: the Jena-born American John Goodenough, the British Stanley Whittingham and the Japanese Akira Yoshino.
The awards will be presented on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the prize donor and inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel. The handover will take place on a much smaller scale this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
