Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier: The Women Behind CRISPR-Cas9

By Angie

In 2020, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier made history as the first two women to share the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Their discovery of CRISPR-Cas9, a revolutionary gene editing tool, has forever changed the way scientists study and alter DNA. What began as a study of bacterial immunity became one of the most powerful technologies in modern biology.

Emmanuelle Charpentier, a French microbiologist, was researching how bacteria defend themselves against viruses when she identified a small RNA molecule called tracrRNA. Around the same time, Jennifer Doudna, an American biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley, was studying how RNA molecules can guide and control proteins. When the two met at a scientific conference in 2011, they realized that their research could fit together perfectly. They teamed up to explore how bacteria’s natural defense system could be repurposed as a gene-editing tool.

In 2012, their collaboration led to a groundbreaking paper published in Science. They showed that the CRISPR-Cas9 system could be programmed with a simple guide RNA to cut DNA at a chosen spot (Jinek et al., 2012). This meant that scientists could now edit genes with incredible precision, something that was previously complex and time-consuming. Their discovery quickly became a cornerstone of molecular biology, with applications ranging from curing genetic disorders to improving crops and studying brain development.

But both Doudna and Charpentier have emphasized that with great power comes responsibility. They have spoken publicly about the ethical boundaries of gene editing, warning against its misuse in creating genetically modified embryos or “designer babies.” In her book A Crack in Creation, Doudna reflects on the moral and social implications of being able to rewrite the code of life (Doudna & Sternberg, 2017).

When the Nobel Committee awarded them the Chemistry Prize in 2020, it recognized not just a scientific breakthrough, but also a milestone for women in science. As stated on the official Nobel Prize website, “Through their discovery, they have developed a technology for rewriting the code of life.” Their story is one of collaboration, curiosity, and courage — showing how science thrives when minds from different backgrounds work together toward a common goal.

Today, CRISPR-Cas9 continues to inspire new discoveries in medicine and genetics. And thanks to Doudna and Charpentier, the future of biology is not just about studying life, but shaping it responsibly.

References

• Nobel Prize Organization. (2020). The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020: Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna. Retrieved from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/press-release/

• Jinek, M., Chylinski, K., Fonfara, I., Hauer, M., Doudna, J. A., & Charpentier, E. (2012). A programmable dual-RNA–guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity. Science, 337(6096), 816–821. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1225829

• Doudna, J. A., & Sternberg, S. H. (2017). A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.