We congratulate CeMM SAB Member Emmanuelle Charpentier for the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry obtained together with Jennifer A. Doudna for the development of the CRISPR genome editing method.

Emmanuelle Charpentier is a French researcher and citizen of Europe recognized as a world-leading expert in regulatory mechanisms underlying processes of infection and immunity in bacterial pathogens. With her groundbreaking findings in the field of RNA-mediated regulation based on the CRISPR-Cas9 system, Emmanuelle has laid the foundation for the development of a novel, highly versatile and specific genome editing technology that is revolutionizing life sciences research and could open up whole new opportunities in biomedical gene therapies.

The CRISPR technology has revolutionized the life sciences, opening unprecedented possibilities to study the molecular basis for the properties and behavior of biological systems, at diverse levels of complexity. Modern biomedical research is unthinkable without the technology and there is no laboratory at CeMM that does not make use of it. “Manue”, as she is called with affection by her colleagues, is a person that has long inspired the Viennese community of researchers for the power and originality of her intellectual contributions and her collegial manners. At CeMM, with which Emmanuelle Charpentier has a long-standing relationship, she is admired and appreciated beyond her role as Member of the Scientific Advisory Board.

Emmanuelle Charpentier has been awarded prestigious honors before, including the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine, the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine as well as the Swedish Göran Gustafsson prize. In 2016, she gave a memorable CeMM Landsteiner Lecture.

CeMM faculty, postdocs, students, technical and administrative staff cheer enthusiastically to this new recognition of Emmanuelle Charpentier’s towering contributions.

<link www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/charpentier/facts/&gt;https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/charpentier/facts/</link> 

<link www.emmanuelle-charpentier-lab.org/&gt;https://www.emmanuelle-charpentier-lab.org/</link>