The Two Women Who Won the Nobel Prize
- Aspiring Doctors
- Nov 4, 2020
- 3 min read
By: Scotia Ouellette
Overview
Joining other acclaimed female scientists such as Marie Curie, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier became the sixth and seventh women to ever win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, respectively. Their discovery was simple and cheap yet would change the field of biochemistry and the world forever. After being pioneers in CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), the two discovered the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tools. A tool that acts as genetic scissors and allows scientists to perform genetic surgery.
CRISPR
So, what exactly is CRISPR? CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. There is a large chance you have heard of CRISPR and related technology through the news or in a science class. CRISPR is a part of the microbial immune system that allows prokaryotes (single-celled organisms) to recognize genetic sequences, particularly genetic sequences of invaders or other pathogens, and then target them for destruction. What Doudna and Charpentier found is that one can use a particular enzyme, Cas9, with CRISPR to slice a genetic sequence. Giving scientists the ability to cut DNA at a precise location.
Benefits & Controversy of CRISPR
The CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tools have already benefited and will continue to have a major impact on humankind. Currently, the tool Doudna and Charpentier developed is being used to treat cancer, sickle-cell-anemia, and hereditary blindness. In the future, this pair of genetic scissors can be used to develop new medicines, agricultural products, possibly eliminate certain diseases, and so much more. Nothing is without its controversy though and CRISPR has its own. The most debated use of CRISPR was when a Chinese scientist, He Jainkui, used it to edit human embryos. He used CRISPR on twin embryos in an attempt to remove a gene, CCR5, that can enable HIV from entering cells. There is no information on the effectiveness or other consequences of modifying the gene. He faced many criminal charges and penalties such as the inability to do science in addition to large backlash. However, it raises the ethical questions regarding the fate of designer babies and the editing of human genomes. It is important to note that the scientific community collectively agrees that not only is the current technology way too far from experimenting on humans and human embryos with but the concept and action is highly unethical.
Impact
With Doudna and Charpentier winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, they add to a growing list of 58 other women who have ever won a Nobel Prize. In a statement Doudna said “I think for many women, there’s a feeling that no matter what they do, their work will never be recognized as it might be if they were a man. And I’d like to see that change, of course, and I think this is a step in the right direction.” The two are leading women in the field of chemistry and hope to inspire and recognize other women and their work. Their discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tools would not have been possible without the work of Rosalind Franklin, the woman who captured the images that enabled for the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. The Nobel committee awarding the prize Doudna and Charpentier additionally highlights the importance of the new emerging field and the needed awareness around it.
To find out more on Jennifer Dounda’s and Emmanuelle Charpentier’s discovery of the CRIPSR-Cas9 gene-editing tools, follow the links below:
Original Journal Article Published in Science in 2012:
Later Journal Article Published in Science in 2014:
Nobel Prize Website Recap (Features two fantastic PDFs):
Works Cited
Cyranoski, D. (2019, February 26). The CRISPR-baby scandal: what’s next for human gene-editing. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00673-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=6e96ca43-619d-41db-bab6-64222ce464d4
Cohen, J. (2020, October 7). CRISPR, the revolutionary genetic ‘scissors,’ honored by Chemistry Nobel. Science. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/crispr-revolutionary-genetic-scissors-honored-chemistry-nobel
Isaacson, W. (2020, October 7). Charpentier and Doudna’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry Honors a Revolution. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/opinion/nobel-prize-chemistry-2020-doudna-charpentier.html
Ledford, H., & Callaway, E. (2020, October 7). Pioneers of revolutionary CRISPR gene editing win chemistry Nobel. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02765-9?error=cookies_not_supported&code=30603737-54a1-40eb-bc03-a5b6035f69b3
Wu, K. J., Zimmer, C., & Peltier, E. (2020, October 12). Two Scientists Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Crispr Gene Editing. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/science/nobel-prize-chemistry-crispr.html?login=smartlock&auth=login-smartlock
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