Photo credit: Christopher Michel — Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Jennifer Doudna
born 1964 · United States · Contemporary
Nobel Chemistry 2020
Co-developed CRISPR–Cas9 as a programmable gene-editing tool with Emmanuelle Charpentier.
Nobel Prize work
With Emmanuelle Charpentier, Doudna worked out how the CRISPR–Cas9 complex recognises and cuts DNA, then fused its two natural guide RNAs into a single programmable guide RNA. Their 2012 experiments showed the enzyme could be aimed at any sequence in vitro, laying the foundation of CRISPR genome editing now used across biology and medicine.