Nobel Peace Prize in Chemistry

The Nobel Peace Prize in Chemistry this year was awarded to two women for their outstanding work in developing the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors, a method for editing genomes. An American biochemist Jennifer Doudna and a French microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier are the first women to jointly win the prize for Chemistry, and they are the sixth and seventh women to win it in Chemistry. Their research is not only a major breakthrough for science, but also for many young girls aspiring to go into STEM. These gene-editing tools have opened new pathways for cancer therapies as well as for curing inherited diseases. There has been controversy regarding if it is ethical, partly due to an experiment by a Chinese scientist who created the first gene-edited babies. However, used and regulated properly, the ability to edit genes has the potential to greatly improve our lives. Doudna and Charpentier discovered a particular molecular tool that makes incisions in genetic material much more precise. Additionally, their discovery will cut down the amount of time needed to only a few weeks.

“There is enormous power in this genetic tool, which affects us all. It has not only revolutionized basic science, but also resulted in innovative crops and will lead to ground-breaking new medical treatments," said Claes Gustafsson.

Claes Gustafsson, the chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, emphasized the long term impact of Doudna and Charpentier’s work. Their work is one step closer to medical treatments that will save countless lives, but, even right now, the technology is contributing to other areas of research. For example, plant researchers have used it to create crops that can withstand mold and drought. Another reason their research is remarkable is because of how quickly it was recognized. Generally, the Nobel Prize is awarded to research after at least a couple of decades, but the two women's paper received more than 6,000 citations in only the short time since 2012 when it was published. Furthermore, since 1970, only 700 papers have received that many out of 50 million papers.

Charpentier hopes that the prize sent a "positive message to young girls who would like to follow the path of science, and to show them that women in science also have an impact through the research that they are performing.

In many of the past blogs I have written, women have often been overlooked at the time that their work was published such as Cecilia Payne not being recognized for her discovery of the composition of stars. This time, though, these women were awarded, despite other CRISPR research; the committee acknowledged their fundamental role in understanding the mechanism. I am optimistic that we are making progress and that young girls are seeing more women at the forefront of STEM.