Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to geneticists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna

At the origin of the "Crispr scissors", the Frenchwoman Emmanuelle Charpentier and the American Jennifer Doudna, specialists in genetics, were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday October 7 for the "development of a method of genome editing ".

This award is given to them for having developed "a tool to rewrite the code of life," said the jury in Stockholm when announcing the award.

In June 2012, the two geneticists and colleagues described in the journal Science a new tool capable of simplifying the modification of the genome.

The mechanism is called Crispr / Cas9 and is nicknamed "molecular scissors".

It cuts a specific gene, is easy to use, inexpensive, and allows scientists to cut DNA exactly where they want it, for example to create or correct a genetic mutation and treat rare diseases.

BREAKING NEWS:

The 2020 #NobelPrize in Chemistry has been awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing.”

pic.twitter.com/CrsnEuSwGD

- The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 7, 2020

If gene therapy involves inserting a normal gene into cells that have a faulty gene, like a Trojan horse, so that it does the job that bad gene does not, Crispr goes further: instead of adding a new gene, the tool modifies an existing gene.

The discovery, albeit recent, had been cited for several years as nobelizable and was among the favorites this year.

But it is also the subject of patent disputes, in particular with the American researcher of Chinese origin Feng Zhang, which led some to think that the reward would wait.

The two researchers have already been covered with distinctions: the Breakthrough Prize (2015), the scientific prize of the Princess of Asturias (2015) or the Kavli prize for nanosciences in Norway (2018).

According to William Kaelin, Nobel Prize winner in medicine last year, "genetic modification by Crispr is far ahead" of the decade's discoveries in medicine.

The two researchers were also cited for winning a Nobel Prize in medicine.

The 6th and 7th

The 2019 chemistry prize was awarded to a trio: the American John Goodenough - crowned at 97, a record - the Briton Stanley Whittingham and the Japanese Akira Yoshino, for the invention of lithium-ion batteries, today present in many everyday technologies.

The Frenchwoman, 51, and the American, 56, become the sixth and seventh women to win a Nobel in chemistry since 1901.

Before them, only five women have won the Nobel in chemistry since 1901, for 183 men: Marie Curie (1911), her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie (1935), Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1964), Ada Yonath (2009) and Frances Arnold (2018).

Medicine opened the 2020 Nobel Balls on Monday with the coronation of Americans Harvey Alter and Charles Rice, alongside Briton Michael Houghton, for their role in the discovery of the virus responsible for hepatitis C.

The physics prize on Tuesday crowned the Briton Roger Penrose, the German Reinhard Genzel and the American Andrea Ghez, three pioneers of space research on "black holes".

The literature prize, the most anticipated event for the general public with peace on Friday in Oslo, will be announced Thursday by the Swedish Academy.

The more recently created savings prize will close the season on Monday.

With Reuters 

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR