Pioneers of the genetic “copy-paste” earn Frontiers of Knowledge award
The BBVA Foundation has bestowed its Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biomedicine category on Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer Doudna and Francisco Martínez Mojica, for igniting “the revolution in biology permitted by CRISPR/Cas 9 techniques.” These tools facilitate genome modification with an unprecedented degree of precision and far more cheaply and straightforwardly than any previous method. Not unlike today’s word processing programs, CRISPR/Cas 9 is able to “cut & paste” several genes at the same time.
The prize jury, formed by eight European and American experts, were keen to highlight the vision and perseverance of Martínez Mojica in exploring a biological problem which at the time interested no one, but would enable the flowering of a new revolutionary technique.
