French scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna of the United States have been selected for the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in the year 2020 “development of a method for genome editing”. The Nobel Prize Committee on Wednesday announced the Nobel Prizes in the field of chemistry. The committee announced the names of the above laureates jointly.
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The awards were announced on Wednesday in Stockholm by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Nobel Committee for Chemistry said, “Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna have discovered one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors.” The committee further said that this genetic device has a great power, which affects us all. It has not only revolutionized basic science, but many new crops have also been born and this will also encourage new medical treatments.
In 2012, CRISPR / CAS9 (CRISPR-Cas9) genetic scissors were discovered by Emmanuelle Charpentier and Doudna, and this discovery led to a revolution in genome editing and began to take place on a large scale. The Nobel Committee believes that this could be a boon for humanity. With the help of this genetic scissor, the DNA of organisms can be transformed. This technique helped in the treatment of cancer and the treatment of genetic diseases became possible.
So far 111 Nobel Prizes have been given for chemistry, including the 183 winners. The prestigious award carries a gold medal in addition to the prize money of 10 million Krona (more than 1.1 million dollars). The award is given in memory of Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel, who created a fund 124 years ago, from this fund, this award is given for important discoveries of the world.
Who got this award Last Year?
Last year, John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Wittingham and Akira Yoshino were awarded the Nobel Prize for the development of Lithium-ion batteries.