Jennifer A. Doudna

Facts

Jennifer A. Doudna

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Brittany Hosea-Small

Jennifer A. Doudna
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020

Born: 19 February 1964, Washington, DC, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

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, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier 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: Jennifer A. Doudna – Facts – 2020. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Wed. 28 Sep 2022. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/doudna/facts/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Coming up

2022 Nobel Prize announcements

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements will take place 3–10 October. All announcements will be streamed live here on nobelprize.org.

See the full schedule
Announcement dates

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.