Thursday, October 8, 2020

THE CHEMISTRY NOBEL PRIZE - 2020

 The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded jointly to Emmanuelle Charpentier (Institut Pasteur, Paris) and Jennifer A. Doudna (Univ. of California, Berkeley) "for the development of a method for genome editing."

They have discovered one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. Using these, researchers can change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with high precision. This technology will have revolutionary impact on the life sciences, particularly in cancer therapy and of curing inherited diseases.

While the award is for chemistry, it could be viewed from multiple disciplines of science; biology, physics (genetic engineering) & chemistry as there is quiet a bit of overlap of multiple science streams in this discovery 

While Nobel price was bestowed with a positive intent  on the possibility of curing diseases and bringing out disease free humans), definitely there is a negative side, the misuse of this technology, something that the world started worrying from the time Watson and Crick discovered the human genetic code. 

Lastly the Nobel prize recognition is a sweet revenge for Charpentier & Doudna, though they did the discovery, the patent of this genetic technology is held by someone else and that we call the ‘game of science’

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