Discovery in CRISPR-Cas9 system.

Abstract

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the American scientist Jennifer A. Doudna and the French scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier, in recognition of their discovery in one of the greatest weapons in genetic technology: CRISPR-Cas9 gene scissors. The CRISPR-Cas system is a bacterial defense immune system against exogenous genetic material. Because the system can specifically recognize and cut DNA, this technology is widely used for precise editing of animal, plant, and microbial DNA. The discovery of CRISPR-Cas9 gene scissors enables the tedious and complicated cell gene editing work to be completed in a few weeks or even less, which has promoted the development of gene editing technology in various fields and brought revolutionary influence to the field of life sciences. At the same time, CRISPR gene editing technology has become one of the new therapies for tumors because of its large number of targets and relatively simple operation, and it also makes gene therapy possible. Although the technology still needs to solve technical problems such as off-target and promoter inefficiency, the CRISPR-Cas system will show its unique advantages in more fields with the continuous development of life science and basic medicine.