Emmanuelle Charpentier

Facts

Emmanuelle Charpentier preliminary portrait

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Bernhard Ludewig

Emmanuelle Charpentier
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020

Born: 11 December 1968, Juvisy-sur-Orge, France

Affiliation at the time of the award: Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, Germany

Prize motivation: “for the development of a method for genome editing”

Prize share: 1/2

Work

The life processes of organisms are controlled by genes made up of sections of DNA. In 2012, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna developed a method for high-precision genome editing. They used the immune system of a bacterium, which disables viruses by cutting their DNA up with a type of genetic scissors. By extracting and simplifying the genetic scissors' molecular components, they made it generally applicable. The CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors can lead to new scientific discoveries, better crops and new weapons in the fight against cancer and genetic diseases.

To cite this section
MLA style: Emmanuelle Charpentier – Facts – 2020. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Thu. 23 Mar 2023. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/charpentier/facts/>

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