Doudna & Charpentier receive 2014 Janssen Award for Biomedical Research

IGI Executive Director Jennifer Doudna and her collaborator, Emmanuelle Charpentier, have won the 2014 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research, in recognition for their ground-breaking discovery of a new method for precisely manipulating genetic information in ways that should produce new insights in health and disease, and may lead to the discovery of new targets for drug development.  Doudna, Charpentier and their colleagues determined that Cas9 – an enzyme specialized for cutting DNA – can be programmed with single RNA molecules to cleave specific DNA sites, creating a simple and versatile system for genome targeting and editing. This new understanding enables researchers to rapidly model human disease alleles in the laboratory, speeding the search for new drug leads and opening new doors for the treatment of human genetic disorders.  The following video presentations of Doudna and Charpentier present summaries of their research:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9WbVicsX-o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWspSkFzeMU

Press Release
Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., and Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., Win 2014 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research
June 24, 2014