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Emmanuelle Charpentier

From Alfawiki
Emmanuelle Charpentier
Born
Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier

(1968-12-11) December 11, 1968 (age 57)
Juvisy-sur-Orge, France
Occupation(s)Microbiologist, geneticist, biochemist
Years active1993–present
Known forCRISPR genome editing technology, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2020)

Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier (; born 11 December 1968) is a distinguished French academic and scientist with expertise in microbiology, genetics, and biochemistry. Since 2015, she has held the position of director at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology located in Berlin. In 2018, she established the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, an autonomous research entity. Charpentier, alongside American biochemist Jennifer Doudna, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for pioneering a genome editing technique utilizing CRISPR, marking the first instance where the Nobel Prize in science was awarded exclusively to two women.

Early life and education

Charpentier’s paternal grandfather, bearing the surname Sinanian, was an Armenian who fled to France during the Armenian Genocide and later met his spouse in Marseille. Born in 1968 in Juvisy-sur-Orge, France, she pursued studies in biochemistry, microbiology, and genetics at Pierre and Marie Curie University (now incorporated into Sorbonne University) in Paris. Between 1992 and 1995, she completed her graduate studies at the Institut Pasteur, where she earned a research doctorate centered on molecular mechanisms underlying antibiotic resistance.

Career and research

Charpentier started her career as a teaching assistant at Pierre and Marie Curie University from 1993 to 1995, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institut Pasteur during 1995–1996. She then undertook postdoctoral research at Rockefeller University (1996–1997) in the United States, focusing on genetic studies of Streptococcus pneumoniae and its antibiotic resistance. From 1997 until 1999, she served as assistant research scientist at NYU Langone Medical Center, investigating mammalian gene regulation related to hair follicle development. Subsequently, she held research roles at both St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine between 1999 and 2002.

Upon returning to Europe, Charpentier led a laboratory at the University of Vienna from 2002 to 2004, where she identified an RNA molecule that controls virulence in Streptococcus pyogenes. She advanced to assistant professor and later achieved her habilitation qualification in Microbiology. Between 2006 and 2009, she was appointed associate professor at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories.

From 2008 to 2013, Charpentier headed a laboratory and led a research group at the Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) within Umeå University, continuing as a visiting professor there until 2017. She relocated to Germany to direct a department jointly at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and Hannover Medical School from 2013 to 2015, earning an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in 2014.

In 2015, Charpentier was inducted as a scientific member of the German Max Planck Society and appointed director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. Since 2016, she has held an Honorary Professorship at Humboldt University, and beginning in 2018 became founding director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens. She maintained visiting professor status at Umeå University until 2017, supported by funding from the Kempe Foundations and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, which facilitated growth in early-career researcher positions within MIMS.

CRISPR/Cas9

Charpentier gained international recognition for her Nobel Prize-winning research that unraveled the molecular basis of the bacterial immune defense system known as CRISPR/Cas9, subsequently transforming it into a powerful genome editing technology. She discovered a previously unknown pathway responsible for the processing of a non-coding RNA vital to CRISPR/Cas9 activity, revealing that a small RNA molecule termed tracrRNA plays a crucial role in crRNA maturation.

In 2011, Charpentier connected with Jennifer Doudna during a scientific conference, sparking a collaborative partnership. Their joint research demonstrated that Cas9 could be directed to cleave any specific DNA sequence. They developed a technique combining Cas9 with an engineered "guide RNA," which is a fusion of crRNA and tracrRNA, allowing relatively straightforward genome manipulation. This innovation has been extensively utilized to modify DNA across various organisms including plants, animals, and cultured cells, fundamentally advancing genetic research by enabling detailed gene function analysis and paving the way for safer, more precise genetic therapies.

Charpentier co-established CRISPR Therapeutics and ERS Genomics in 2013 alongside Shaun Foy and Rodger Novak to accelerate the commercialization of CRISPR-based technologies.

Awards

In 2015, Time magazine honored Charpentier as one of the Time 100 most influential individuals worldwide, sharing this distinction with Jennifer Doudna.

Her distinguished accolades encompass the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, the Gruber Foundation International Prize in Genetics, the Leibniz Prize, the Tang Prize, the Japan Prize, and the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience. Additionally, she was awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award alongside Jennifer Doudna and Francisco Mojica.


Honorary Doctorates

Professional Affiliations

Cultural Impact

In 2019, Charpentier was portrayed in the theatrical production STEM FEMMES, staged by Applied Mechanics, a Philadelphia-based theater group.

Walter Isaacson's 2021 biography The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race chronicles Jennifer Doudna’s partnership with Charpentier culminating in the CRISPR/Cas9 breakthrough.

Further Reading

External Links

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