Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna
Nobel Prize 2020 for Chemistry has been awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for their contribution to the development of CRISPR-Cas9, which allows rewriting DNA code of any organism including human beings. It will enable to specifically cleave any sequence in the genome so that any desirable change can be made to the genome.
Emmanuelle Charpentier is currently working with Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens and her working partner Jennifer Doudna is a Li Ka Shing Chancellor Chair professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California.
Pair of awardees are acknowledged by the Nobel committee as role models for aspiring scientists of all genders and their discovery as an incredible toolkit that will help in fighting and preventing diseases to growing global population.
There are several criticisms on the under-representation of women in Nobel laureates. Out of 185 individuals received Nobel Prize in Chemistry, only seven among them are women including this year's laureates. An analysis based in Bayesian hierarchical model by Per Lunnemann and others pointing out that, across all discipline, women are lessened irrespective of the increase in the number of women engaging in academia.