Jennifer Doudna
Jennifer Doudna (born February 19, 1964) is an American biochemist recognized for her pivotal role in developing CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology. Along with Emmanuelle Charpentier, she discovered how to adapt this bacterial system to cut DNA at precise locations, enabling targeted gene modifications. This breakthrough revolutionized molecular biology, opening new avenues for gene therapies, agriculture, and fundamental genetic research. For this work, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. Her research has transformed modern biomedical science.
Quotes
- The power to control our species’ genetic future is awesome and terrifying. Deciding how to handle it may be the biggest challenge we have ever faced.
- Just because we are not ready for scientific progress does not mean it won’t happen.
- The disjunction between scientific consensus and public opinion on the topic of GMOs is disturbing, to say the least.
- A full 8 percent of the human genome—over 250 million letters of DNA—is a remnant of ancient retroviruses that infected ancestors of our species millennia ago.
- TOMATOES THAT CAN sit in the pantry slowly ripening for months without rotting. Plants that can better weather climate change. Mosquitoes that are unable to transmit malaria. Ultra-muscular dogs that make fearsome partners for police and soldiers. Cows that no longer grow horns. These organisms might sound far-fetched, but in fact, they already exist, thanks to gene editing. And they’re only the beginning. As I write this, the world around us is being revolutionized by CRISPR, whether we’re ready for it or not.
- Have no doubt, this technology will — someday, somewhere — be used to change the genome of our own species in ways that are heritable, forever altering the genetic composition of human kind.
- Armed with the complete CRISPR toolkit, scientists can now exert nearly complete control over both the composition of the genome and its output.