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Berlin (dpa) - No real royals, no gala - but microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier still got her Nobel Prize for chemistry.

On Monday evening, Sweden's ambassador Per Thöresson presented her with the medal and certificate in advance in his Berlin residence.

Because the traditional award of the highest scientific award on December 10th in Stockholm has to be celebrated in front of the computer this year because of the corona pandemic.

It was no surprise that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry at the beginning of October went to Charpentier from France for helping to develop the Crispr / Cas9 gene scissors.

The scientist who conducts research in Berlin has been a hotly traded candidate for years.

She shares the Nobel Prize, worth the equivalent of 950,000 euros, with her US colleague Jennifer A. Doudna.

But both have to celebrate separately.

Charpentier, 51 years old, studied microbiology, biochemistry and genetics at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris.

Several research stations followed in the USA, Vienna and Sweden.

From 2013 to 2015 she worked at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig.

Then she moved to the federal capital, initially as director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology.

Since 2018 she has been the founding and acting director of the Max Planck Research Center for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin.

She is also an honorary professor at Humboldt University.

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The discovery of the gene scissors is based on a mechanism that many bacteria use to protect themselves from viruses.

Charpentier and Doudna use it to specifically change the genetic information of living beings, for example to cut or add individual genes to the genetic material.

Within a few years, the use of gene scissors became a standard procedure in molecular biology.

Time and again, ethical questions play a role in use.

In addition to plant breeding, research is also being carried out into possible applications in medicine: Diseases that are based on a defective or missing gene can possibly be cured with gene scissors.

It can also be used to change the genetic makeup of human sperm, egg cells and embryos.

In 2018, the Chinese scientist He Jiankui caused horror when he announced the birth of two girls whose genes he had previously manipulated with gene scissors.

In Germany, changing the DNA of embryos is prohibited.

Charpentier himself has spoken out against interventions in the germ line several times.

In October she said that sometimes research is far from understanding the complexities of interventions.

"There are risks in the future."

A strong scientific community is needed to answer the ethical questions.