Emmanuelle Charpentier is a French microbiologist, geneticist and biochemist. She received her education in Paris, France, and pursued a scientific career in academic research institutions in France, the U.S, Austria, Sweden and Germany. Charpentier is now based in Berlin, Germany.

Charpentier has devoted most of her scientific career to understanding the fundamental mechanisms of diseases, with a particular interest in infections caused by Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria such as Listeria, staphylococci and streptococci.

Charpentier is best known for her and her lab’s research on the CRISPR-Cas9 adaptive immune system in the human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes and other bacterial species, which laid the foundation for the development of a highly versatile and specific genome editing and engineering technology. The technology known as CRISPR-Cas is revolutionising research in the life sciences. CRISPR-Cas has opened up entirely new possibilities in biotechnology and biomedical gene therapies that have an impact on society and humanity. The field of CRISPR-Cas biology and engineering continues to grow at a rapid pace, with exciting new developments emerging almost weekly.

For her and her team’s contribution to the discovery of CRISPR-Cas9, Charpentier has received numerous honors, decorations, prizes, awards and honorary doctorates in Europe, Asia and North America. She is an elected member of national and international scientific academies.

Charpentier is the inventor and co-owner of the core intellectual property of the CRISPR-Cas9 technology. Together with Rodger Novak and Shaun Foy, she co-founded CRISPR Therapeutics and ERS Genomics to develop the CRISPR-Cas genome engineering technology for biotechnology and biomedical applications.

More about Emmanuelle Charpentier and the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

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