Nobel laureate Charpentier pens message for girls, says 'women in science can have impact'

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna recently won Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the development of a method for genome editing.” The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences had said that Chemistry Laureates Charpentier and Doudna discovered one of gene technology’s sharpest tools - the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. In terms of gender rights and women’s visibility in science, the two winners also did rewrite history. 

While taking to Twitter, the Nobel Prize Committee shared a statement by Charpentier following her big win. The Chemistry laureate said that that she wishes to send a ‘positive message’ to the young girls who would like to follow the path of science in future. Charpentier said that she wanted to show that women in science can also have an impact through research. 

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‘Well deserved’ 

Since being shared, the post has garnered over 14,000 likes and thousands of comments. While some users congratulated Charpentier and lauded her contribution to the world of science, others wrote, “You are the kind of example girls like my daughter who just went to medical school need. Discovery is a step into the unknown to build beyond the known. Congratulations and say hello from me to Goran H when you meet him in Stockholm”. Another user added, “so well-deserved!” “This is a true result of science passion, congregation,” wrote fourth. 

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Charpentier published her discovery in 2011 and, later in the year, initiated a collaboration with Doudna. The two Chemistry Laureates succeeded in recreating the bacteria’s genetic scissors in a test tube and simplifying the scissors’ molecular components so they were easier to use. The duo then reprogrammed the genetic scissors. 

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