Biochemist Jennifer Doudna to Receive 2019 Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest
Renowned biochemist and genomics researcher Jennifer Doudna has been selected as the recipient of the 2019 Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. The public is invited to attend the award ceremony and a presentation from Doudna in a free event on Oct. 7 at 6 p.m. at the Robert Paine Scripps Forum for Science, Society and the Environment on the Scripps campus.
The Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest has been awarded annually by Scripps Oceanography since 2001. The prize, which includes a bronze medal and $25,000, is awarded for outstanding contributions to science in the public interest. Previous Nierenberg Prize winners include NASA astronaut and administrator Charles Bolden, filmmaker Sir David Attenborough, primatologist Dame Jane Goodall, and filmmaker James Cameron.
Doudna is the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair and a professor in the Departments of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
In 2012, Doudna and collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier discovered a revolutionary method of genomic editing. They demonstrated that a bacterial protein called Cas9 could be used to cut and edit DNA, greatly reducing the time and effort of previous methods. The discovery of CRISPR-Cas9 genetic engineering technology has changed human and agricultural genomics research forever. This genome-editing technology enables scientists to change or remove genes quickly and with extreme precision. Labs worldwide have changed the course of their research programs to incorporate this new tool, creating a CRISPR revolution with huge implications across biology and medicine.
