ALBANY, N.Y. -- Five researchers will share a US$500,000 medical prize for their roles in developing a groundbreaking, gene-editing tool that lets scientists alter the DNA of living cells.
The announced Tuesday are being recognized for their accomplishments related to the development of the tool, called CRISPR-Cas9. The faster, cheaper and simpler tool has sparked a boom in research over the past five years.
The recipients are: Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Germany; Jennifer Doudna, University of California, Berkeley; Luciano Marraffini, The Rockefeller University, New York City; Francisco J.M. Mojica, University of Alicante, Spain; Feng Zhang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
They will receive the award at a ceremony Sept. 27 in Albany, New York.
