Nobel prize in chemistry goes to the pioneers of CRISPR gene editing

By Adam Vaughan

Emmanuelle Charpentier at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology and Jennifer Doudna at the University of California, Berkley have won this year’s Nobel prize in chemistry for pioneering the genome editing tool CRISPR-CAS9. The pair were recognised for their work on the widely-used tool which has applications for new medicines, crops and more.

“This is a technology method that can provide humankind with great opportunities,” said Claes Gustafsson of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, speaking as the prize was announced today at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

“I …