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 methodology for high precision changes to genes. They used the immune defenses of bacteria, which disable viruses by cutting their DNA up with a type of genetic scissors. By extracting and simplifying the gene scissors’ molecular components, they were able to make a tool that could be used to cut any DNA molecule at a predetermined site. The CRISPR/Cas9 gene 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 2022. Wed. 19 Jan 2022. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/charpentier/facts/>

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