Jennifer Doudna

Jennifer Doudna
ForMemRS
Doudna in 2023
Born
Jennifer Anne Doudna

(1964-02-19) February 19, 1964 (age 60)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Education
Known for
Spouse
Jamie Cate
​
(m. 2000)​
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisTowards the Design of an RNA Replicase (1989)
Doctoral advisorJack Szostak
Other academic advisorsThomas Cech
Doctoral students
WebsiteDoudna Lab website
Hughes Institute website

Jennifer Anne Doudna ForMemRS (/ˈdaʊdnə/;[1] born February 19, 1964)[2] is an American biochemist who has pioneered work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics. She received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with Emmanuelle Charpentier, "for the development of a method for genome editing."[3][4] She is the Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Chair Professor in the department of chemistry and the department of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1997.[5]

In 2012, Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier were the first to propose that CRISPR-Cas9 (enzymes from bacteria that control microbial immunity) could be used for programmable editing of genomes,[6][7] which has been called one of the most significant discoveries in the history of biology.[8] Since then, Doudna has been a leading figure in what is referred to as the "CRISPR revolution" for her fundamental work and leadership in developing CRISPR-mediated genome editing.[6]

Doudna at the Innovative Genomics Institute

Doudna's awards and fellowships include the 2000 Alan T. Waterman Award for her research on the structure of a ribozyme, as determined by X-ray crystallography[9] and the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology, with Charpentier.[10] She has been a co-recipient of the Gruber Prize in Genetics (2015),[11] the Tang Prize (2016),[12] the Canada Gairdner International Award (2016),[13] and the Japan Prize (2017).[14] She was named one of the Time 100 most influential people in 2015,[15] and in 2023 was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.[16]

  1. ^ "Pondering 'what it means to be human' on the frontier of gene editing". The Washington Post. May 3, 2016. Archived from the original on October 15, 2020. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  2. ^ "Jennifer Doudna – American biochemist". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Archived from the original on October 7, 2020. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  3. ^ Wu, Katherine J.; Zimmer, Carl; Peltier, Elian (October 7, 2020). "Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to 2 Scientists for Work on Genome Editing". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 8, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  4. ^ "Press release: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020". nobelprize.org. Nobel Foundation. October 7, 2020. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  5. ^ "Curriculum Vitae (Jennifer A. Doudna)" (PDF). Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 15, 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg. A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Pollack, Andrew (May 11, 2015). "Jennifer Doudna, a Pioneer Who Helped Simplify Genome Editing". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 2, 2022. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
  9. ^ "Alan T. Waterman Award Recipients, 1976 – present". National Science Foundation. Archived from the original on March 2, 2015. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  10. ^ "Laureates: Jennifer A. Doudna". breakthroughprize.org. Archived from the original on April 20, 2022. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  11. ^ "2015 Genetics Prize: Jennifer Doudna". The Gruber Foundation. Archived from the original on September 5, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  12. ^ "Laureates: Biopharmaceutical Science (2016)". Tang Prize Foundation. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  13. ^ "Jennifer Doudna". Canada Gairdner Foundation. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
  14. ^ "Laureates of the Japan Prize: Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D." The Japan Prize Foundation. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Time100-2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ "2023 Inductee Jennifer Doudna | National Inventors Hall of Fame®". www.invent.org. December 28, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2023.