Two women jointly win Nobel Prize 2020 in Chemistry for developing gene editing tool

Two women jointly win Nobel Prize 2020 in Chemistry for developing gene editing tool

Srinagar: French Emmanuelle Charpentier associated with the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, Germany and US born Jennifer A Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, USA have been awarded Nobel Prize 2020 “for the development of a method for genome editing”.
In a press release issued Wednesday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences termed the duo’s invention as “Genetic scissors: a tool for rewriting the code of life”.
As per the Royal academy, Charpentier and Doudna have discovered one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. Using these, researchers can change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with extremely high precision. This technology has had a revolutionary impact on the life sciences, is contributing to new cancer therapies and may make the dream of curing inherited diseases come true.
It said that since Charpentier and Doudna discovered the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors in 2012 their use has exploded.
This tool has contributed to many important discoveries in basic research, and plant researchers have been able to develop crops that withstand mould, pests and drought. In medicine, clinical trials of new cancer therapies are underway, and the dream of being able to cure inherited diseases is about to come true. These genetic scissors have taken the life sciences into a new epoch and, in many ways, are bringing the greatest benefit to humankind.

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