We’ve shared stories about how CRISPR is revolutionizing treatment for diseases like sickle cell and other genetic diseases. The gene-editing technology has the potential to change the course of modern medicine and this week, its inventors were recognized with the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Pioneering French scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier and American scientist Jennifer A. Doudna developed the “genetic scissors” editing technique in 2012 and the CRISPR technique has been used in widespread research around the world to treat a wide variety of hereditary diseases.
To provide some context for the potential power of this discovery, Doudna writes in her book, A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution, “Within a few decades, we might well have genetically engineered pigs that can serve as human organ donors—but we could also have woolly mammoths, winged lizards, and unicorns.”
The Nobel Prize recognizes a truly momentous achievement in chemistry, but it is also the first time two women have shared a Nobel Prize. We look forward to covering all the future solutions that stem from Charpentier and Doudna’s work.
