NAM member Jennifer Doudna has been awarded the 2017 Japan Prize for her invention of the CRISPRI-Cas9 technology. She shares the award with her co-inventor Professor Emmanuelle Charpentier. Doudna and Charpentier have shared numerous awards for their work with CRISPR-Cas9.
The CRISPR-Cas9 technology, which has created quite a buzz in the science world, is a genome editing tool that allows scientists to edit and alter the genome more efficiently and more accurately than ever before. The tool is already being used to edit the genomes of animals, insects, and crops in order to study, fight, and improve disease resistance.
Doudna accepted the 2017 Japan Prize in Tokyo on February 2 and will receive a certificate and recognition, a commemorative gold medal, and 50 million Japanese ten (approximately $420,000 U.S.) at an awards ceremony on April 19 in Tokyo.
Doudna is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She has been a member of the NAM since 2010.
To read more about the award and to view a video of the February 2 press conference, please click here.
