The powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 was not created overnight. It was the result of years of research by brilliant scientists. Two women in particular are credited with turning CRISPR into the revolutionary tool we know today.
👩🔬 Emmanuelle Charpentier
Charpentier, a French microbiologist, was studying how bacteria defend themselves against viruses. She discovered that a small molecule called tracrRNA was a key part of the bacterial immune system. This breakthrough was the missing puzzle piece in making CRISPR work as a gene-editing tool.
👩🔬 Jennifer Doudna
Doudna, an American biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley, teamed up with Charpentier. Together, they showed how the CRISPR-Cas9 system could be reprogrammed to cut DNA at specific locations. Their work demonstrated the potential of CRISPR for medicine, agriculture, and beyond.
🏆 Nobel Prize
In 2020, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking discovery. They became the first two women to share this prize in the sciences.
CRISPR Discovery Timeline
🌍 Impact
Thanks to their discovery, scientists today are testing new treatments for genetic diseases, developing disease-resistant crops, and learning more than ever before about how life works at the molecular level.
✨ Fun Fact
CRISPR’s natural origins come from bacteria, which use it as a defense system against viruses. In other words, a bacterial immune trick is now helping humans fight disease!
Related reading: CRISPR: How Gene Editing Is Changing Science
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