The French and US Biochemical, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, won Thursday the Princess of Asturias Scientific and Technical Research Award for developing a technology of genetic modification is “a biotechnological revolution”.
This technology, called CRISPR-Cas system, “can remove, activate, inactivate, even correct any gene” and “This opens the possibility of developing treatments targeting genetic diseases that currently lack effective therapies,” said the jury.
These diseases include cancer, cystic fibrosis or severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome, he said the Princess of Asturias Foundation said in a statement.
The award for scientific and technical research is the fourth of the eight that each year since 1981 awarded the Prince of Asturias Foundation, now renamed Princess of Asturias Foundation in honor of the small Leonor de Borbón, 9, new heir to the throne of Spain after the proclamation of his father, Philip VI as the new monarch in June.
Born December 11, 1968 in Juvisy-sur-Orge (France), Charpentier doctorate in microbiology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and continued his studies in several US centers . Then he returned to Europe where he continued his career in Vienna, Umea (Sweden) and Hannover (Germany), where he currently works.
Meanwhile, Doudna (Washington, 1964) PhD in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard. He worked as a professor and researcher at the University of Colorado and Yale and since 2003 directs the division of biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
“I hope this recognition of science and technology inspire young scientists to continue investigating a spirit of adventure, “Doudna said in a statement released by the foundation, while teammate said he was” thrilled and honored “by the award.
Together with their respective teams research studied “how certain bacteria defend themselves from viruses that infect them, destroying the DNA thereof recognizing some of its specific characteristics,” said the jury.
Following these findings, two scientists decided to join forces to develop a technology of genetic edition inspired by this defense mechanism that “allows inactivate or modify genes with precision and ease never achieved before,” the foundation said.
“This is a method of universal application based on the design of small RNA molecules that guide the Cas9 enzyme to act on DNA, allowing to modify genes in the cells themselves, “said the jury, defining the discovery as” a real revolution in molecular biology. “
Discovered in 2013, the technique spread rapidly by allowing laboratories to perform two or three processes that previously took months and a half, told AFP the Spanish CSIC researcher Lluis Montoliu . “I figured the popularization and universalization of genome modification techniques” he added.
The awards will be presented in the autumn at a ceremony in Oviedo, home of the Princess of Asturias Foundation. (I)
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