Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D.

2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of a method for high-precision genome editing using the immune system of a bacterium, which disables virus by cutting their DNA with a type of genetic scissors.

Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., is a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, and 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.  

Dr. Doudna’s research focuses on RNA biology, leading to the development of CRISPR-Cas9 as  genome-engineering technology. This innovative technology earned Dr. Doudna and her collaborator,  Emmanuelle Charpentier, the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She co-founded and serves on the advisory  panel of several companies that use CRISPR technology in novel ways, leading the discussion of the  ethical implications of CRISPR’s revolutionary technology across biology and medicine.  

Additionally, Doudna is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, senior investigator at  Gladstone Institutes, and the founder of the Innovative Genomics Institute; Dr. Doudna is a member of  several other distinguished scientific and medical societies and has received numerous other honors.  

Current research in the Doudna lab focuses on discovering and determining the mechanisms of novel  CRISPR-Cas and associated proteins; developing genome editing tools for use in vitro, in plants, and in  mammals; and developing anti-CRISPR agents.