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What did Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier discover in 2012?

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CRISPR-Cas9; gene editing — gene editing The CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing complex from the bacterium *Streptococcus pyogenes*.

In 2012, American biochemist Jennifer Doudna and French microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier discovered and developed CRISPR-Cas9, a revolutionary molecular tool for gene editing.123

Derived from the adaptive immune systems of bacteria, this technology allows researchers to make highly specific changes to DNA sequences. Doudna and Charpentier found that the system's guide RNA could be programmed to direct the Cas9 enzyme to a precise location in the genome, where it introduces a double-stranded break. This allows for the efficient removal of existing DNA and the insertion of replacement sequences.123

This discovery provided a simpler, more efficient method for genome engineering than previous techniques, such as zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) or TALENs. For their foundational work in developing these technologies, Doudna and Charpentier were awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.23