Doudna

Doudna is an American biochemist who has played a leading role in the development of CRISPR-Cas9, a versatile method for editing genomes. She is a professor of chemistry and molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

She earned a Ph.D. in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology from Harvard Medical School.

In 2012, Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier published a landmark paper describing a simple, programmable method for editing DNA in living cells using the Cas9 nuclease and a guide RNA.

In 2020, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing.

CRISPR-Cas9 has since been used in basic research and in early clinical trials, with applications to medicine, agriculture, and biotechnology. The technology has prompted ongoing discussions about safety, equity, and governance of genome editing.