[ad_1]
This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the French Emmanuelle Charpentier and the American Jennifer A. Doudna.
“Professor V.Šikšnys has been in the same ranks as today’s winners from the beginning, so it is very disappointing. It should be noted that in 2018, all three received the Kavli Prize, an extremely prestigious award for discovery and development. of the CRISPR phenomenon, so there was every reason to expect that a VU academic would be among the Nobel Prize winners. The scientific community had high hopes for that, “E.Sužiedėlienė told BNS on Wednesday.
Professor V.Šikšnys has been in the same ranks as today’s winners from the beginning, so he is very disappointing.
The technology developed by scientists makes it possible to edit the DNA of organisms with great precision. This opens up opportunities to treat genetic diseases or create new breeds of plants and animals.
Both V.Šikšnys and his team, as well as E.Charpentier and A.Doudna introduced this technology in 2012.
“Eight years is a very short period of time during which the award is presented, which means that it really is a very important contribution to scientific knowledge,” said the VU Vice Chancellor.
Irmanto Gelūno / 15min nuotr./Dr. Edit Sužiedėlienė
When asked what could have determined that the Lithuanian scientist did not receive the award, E.Sužiedėlienė considered that this could be related to the possible greater contribution of scientists in the application of this technology in various fields.
“The discoveries of V. Šikšnis and the group, as well as E.Charpentier and A.Doudna were roughly the same. (…) It is difficult to interpret the decision of the Nobel Committee. It may have been influenced by specific applications, a greater development. But here we can only guess, “he said.
E.Carparpier, 51, and JADoudna, 56, are only the sixth and seventh women to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The woman was first awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, when Marie Curie, who had already withdrawn the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, was honored for her discovery of radium and polonium.
Last year, the award went to three lithium-ion battery manufacturers: John Goodenough from the United States, Stanley Whittingham from England, and Akira Yoshino from Japan.
The prestigious award consists of a gold medal and 10 million. Swedish crowns (959 thousand euros).
In a normal year, the laureates would withdraw their award from King Carl XVI Gustaf at an official ceremony in Stockholm on December 10 to mark the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. Inventor A. Nobel, who died in 1896, established these awards in his will.
This year, however, that service ceremony was canceled due to a coronavirus pandemic. Instead, there will be a television ceremony showing how the awards will be presented to the winners in their countries.
The Nobel Prize season began on Monday with the presentation of the Medical Prize. It went to Americans Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice, as well as Britain’s Michael Houghton.
These virologists were generally honored for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus.
On Tuesday, the Nobel Prize in Physics went to three scientists who explore black holes. Half of the prize was awarded to Roger Penrose, an English representative of mathematical physics, and the other half to Reinhard Genzel, a German astrophysicist, and Andrea Ghez, an American astronomer.
The winners of the most outstanding Literature and Peace Awards will be announced on Thursday and Friday and the season will end next Monday with the announcement of the winner of the Economics Award.
[ad_2]
