Barcelona .- 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 ” biotech 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, said the Princess of Asturias Foundation said in a statement.
The award scientific and technical research is the fourth of eight 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.
A true revolution
Along with their research teams 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, the 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 accuracy and ease never achieved before, “said the foundation.
” is a universally applicable method based on the design of small RNA molecules that guide the Cas9 enzyme to act on DNA, enabling change genes in the cells themselves, “said the jury, defining the discovery as” a revolution in molecular biology. “
Discovered in 2013, the technique spread rapidly by allowing laboratories to perform two or three months processes that previously took eighteen months, told AFP the Spanish CSIC researcher Lluis Montoliu. “I figured the popularization and universalization of modification techniques genome,” he added.
For this work, the two scientists received among other awards the American prize for biomedical research Paul Janssen, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and Award of the International Society of transgenic technologies. They were also included by Time magazine in the list of the hundred most influential of 2015.
Equipped with 50,000 euros (about $ 56,000) and a sculpture created by Joan Miró, these awards honor individuals or institutions relevant in the fields of arts, social sciences, communication and humanities, scientific research, sports, letters, international cooperation and harmony.
In the weeks before they were awarded the filmmaker American Francis Ford Coppola with the prize of Arts, the French economist Esther Duflo with the Social Sciences and the Spanish philosopher Emilio Lledó the Humanities.
Last year, the prize went to the chemical research Avelino Corma Canos Spanish and Americans Mark E. Davis and Galen D. Stucky for his contribution to the development of microporous materials.
The awards will be presented in the autumn at a ceremony in Oviedo, home of the Princess Foundation Asturias.
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