Nordic Life Science 1
UPCOMING EVENTS THE NOBEL PRIZE Emmanuelle Charpe
ntier and Jennifer Doudna S CI ENCE The Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine and Chemistry have been announced, and the discoveries have both revolutionized basic science and greatly improved human health. Academy of Sciences has decided to award this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for the development of a method for genome editing. In 2012 the two scientists published their ground-breaking findings about the mechanisms behind the CRISPR/Cas 9 system. Using this system, researchers can change the DNA of animals, plants 82 and microorganisms with extremely high precision. “This tool has contributed to many important discoveries in basic research. In medicine, clinical trials of new cancer therapies are underway, and the dream of being able to cure inherited diseases is about to come true. These genetic scissors have taken the life sciences into a new epoch and, in many ways, are bringing the greatest benefit to humankind,” states the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Emmanuelle Charpentier was recruited to Umeå University in Sweden in 2008, as Head of a MIMS (Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden) research group and she stayed there for several years. It was also in Umeå she made the Nobel-winning discovery. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has decided to award the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice, for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus. The three scientists have made a decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis, a major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in people around the world, states the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet. Their discovery also allowed the rapid development of antiviral drugs directed at hepatitis C. For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating the Hepatitis C virus from the world population. NLS NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG ILLUSTRATION NIKLAS ELEMEHED, COPYRIGHT: NOBEL MEDIA