The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 jointly to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna "for the development of a method for genome editing."
Winners for Nobel Prize in Chemistry was announced on Wednesday in Stockholm by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna have discovered one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. Using these, researchers can change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with extremely high precision. This technology has had a revolutionary impact on the life sciences, is contributing to new cancer therapies and may make the dream of curing inherited diseases come true.
“There is enormous power in this genetic tool, which affects us all. It has not only revolutionised basic science, but also resulted in innovative crops and will lead to ground-breaking new medical treatments,” says Claes Gustafsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
The prize amount for the award is 10 million Swedish kronor.
On Tuesday three laureates; Roger Penrose of Britain, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and Andrea Ghez of the United States won 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discoveries about one of the most exotic phenomena in the universe, the black hole.
Read more about Nobel Prizes and laureates here: https://www.nobelprize.org/
