The biotech community is raving about the long-awaited recognition of the breakthrough CRISPR gene-editing tool Cas9, after it was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this week under the leadership of its developer. The Nobel committee said that Charpentier, from France, who is currently working in Germany, and Doudna, an American, discovered the CRisPR-Cas9 gene shears, which “have taken life sciences into a new era,” according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science and Technology. For the first time, a Nobel Prize in science has been awarded to women – only the team, scientists Jennifer Choudhury and Anne-Marie Charpentier from France, have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on a gene-editing technique known as snipping for CRISCPR (Cas 9) DNA with scissors, the world’s first of its kind in the field of chemistry. Scientists Jennifer C. Chaudhry and Jean-Pierre Charpenier of the French National Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology (NIPB) in Berlin have won the prize for developing a gene editing technique, a “genetic scissors” with its own genome – a pair of scissors that is only used for women’s teams. In the The Nobel Prize in Science goes to a team of scientists made up entirely of men who, for the first time, use a – his – type of gene-editing technique that deciphers a woman’s genome. [Sources: 0, 4, 10, 14]
Charpentier, 51, and Doudna, 56, are only the sixth and seventh women to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. You are the first woman to receive the prize together and the second woman in the history of the Chemistry Prize. This is the third time a Nobel Prize in science has been awarded to a woman – only to a team, but it is the first time they have been awarded as a team. Choudhury, a professor at the French National Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology (NIPB) in Berlin, is only the fourth Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and the seventh woman. Charpentier and her co-winner Jean-Pierre Charpenier of NipB, both from France, are the fifth and sixth women to receive the chemistry prize, respectively. [Sources: 0, 11, 14]
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to two women for the first time since the award began in 1901 and for the second time in the history of the prize. [Sources: 16]
Only seven women have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and only 22 have ever received it in science, including Andrea Ghez, who co-won it this week. The 25th Nobel Prize winner of the Campus is the 24th prize winner, Reinhard Genzel, whom he just yesterday awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics the previous day and is a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley and a member of the US Department of Energy’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The 25th prize winners are 25-year-old Nobel laureate Andrea Genz (left) and 24-year-old Reinhard and Andrea, both from the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. [Sources: 3, 13, 15]
This award follows this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine, which went to a team of scientists from the University of California, San Diego, and the National Institutes of Health, and this week’s announcement that the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three pioneers of black hole science. The award for Shepard, Slamon and Ullrich is a good bet, while George Smith and Gregory Winter received half the chemistry prize for their work on the development of monoclonal antibodies and drugs. [Sources: 1, 2]
The gene shears known as CRISPR-Cas9 won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for two scientists. It went to Charpentier and Doudna, two women who developed a gene editing tool called CRisPR-Cas9 that snips DNA with molecular scissors. Another contender for the ISPR Nobel Prize is Virginijus Siksnys of the University of Vilnius, who independently described his potential for genome editing just months before Charpentier-Douna. Here we look more closely at why this genetic scissors won the Nobel Prize and why it is so important. [Sources: 6, 7, 8, 9]
Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna received the award for their work on the development of a gene manipulation method called CRISPR – Cas9. Emmanuelle Charpentiers and Jennifer Douna from Vilnius University and their team jointly won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing this method of genomedication, along with two other scientists, Virginijus Siksnys from Lithuania and Jenni Daudna from France. [Sources: 2, 16]
For this groundbreaking approach, Charpentier and Doudna received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Emmanuelle Charpentiers and Jennifer Douna from Vilnius University and their team jointly won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for developing this genome editing method. After the discovery of a genome – a cutting technology that enables scientists to edit the DNA of virtually any living being with unprecedented precision and ease – Daudna and Charpentier were awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in genomedicine. [Sources: 1, 5, 12]
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Sources: [0]: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-us-french-duo-nobel-chemistry-prize.html [1]: https://newatlas.com/science/crispr-2020-nobel-prize-chemistry/ [2]: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/live-crispr-wins-the-2020-chemistry-nobel-prize/4012538.article [3]: https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/10/07/jennifer-doudna-wins-2020-nobel-prize-in-chemistry/ [4]: https://www.labiotech.eu/crispr/crispr-cas9-nobel-2020/ [5]: https://time.com/5897538/nobel-prize-crispr-gene-editing/ [6]: https://www.hhmi.org/news/jennifer-doudna-awarded-2020-nobel-prize-chemistry [7]: https://cen.acs.org/people/nobel-prize/CRISPR-genome-editing-gets-2020-Nobel-Prize-in-Chemistry/98/web/2020/10 [8]: https://www.livescience.com/2020-nobel-prize-chemistry-crispr.html [9]: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/explainer-what-is-crispr-and-why-did-it-win-the-nobel-prize/4012545.article [10]: https://www.dw.com/en/nobel-prize-in-chemistry-awarded-for-genetic-scissors-discovery/a-55182141 [11]: https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/health/nobel-prize-2020-winner-chemistry-scn-intl/index.html [12]: https://www.esmo.org/oncology-news/the-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2020-was-awarded-for-the-development-of-a-method-for-genome-editing [13]: https://www.globalbiotechinsights.com/articles/21878/2020-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-for-crispr-development [14]: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/2020-nobel-prize-in-chemistry/article32791780.ece [15]: https://www.axios.com/nobel-prize-chemistry-gene-editing-crispr-4a48e728-5efe-4ae4-8eee-f01072f676bc.html [16]: https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/crispr-scientists-awarded-2020-nobel-prize-for-chemistry/
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