Q & A With Nobel Laureate and CRISPR Scientist Jennifer Doudna

Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D. Credit: University of California, Berkeley. The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., and Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., for the development of the gene-editing tool CRISPR. Dr. Doudna shared her thoughts on the award and answered questions about CRISPR in a live chat with NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. Here are a few highlights from the interview. Q: How did you find out that you won the Nobel Prize? A: It’s a little bit of an embarrassing story. I slept through a very important phone call and finally woke up when a reporter called me. I was just coming out of a deep sleep, and the reporter was asking, “What do you think about the Nobel?” And I said, “I don’t know anything about it. Who won it?” I thought they were asking for comments on somebody else who won it. And she said, “Oh my gosh! You don’t know! You won it!” Q: Say a little bit about what this prize is for. What’s CRISPR? A: CRISPR is a tool for genome editing. That means changing DNA in a precise way in cells that can allow very tiny changes, including changing a single letter in the genetic code, all the way to cutting out genes or entire pathways and replacing them. It’s a tool for manipulating DNA that actually evolved a long time ago, probably long before humans came along, as a bacterial immune system. It’s a way that bacteria fight viruses. Q: Does CRISPR have therapeutic applications? Will it lead t...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Being a Scientist Genes Tools and Techniques Cool Tools/Techniques CRISPR DNA Gene Editing Nobel Prize Source Type: blogs