CRISPR: Rewriting DNA and the Future of Humanity

Jennifer Doudna, Nobelist, to Receive Alma Dea Morani Award

Jennifer A. Doudna, PhD, who earned the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her groundbreaking development of genome-engineering technology, is the 2021 recipient of the Alma Dea Morani Renaissance Woman Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation.

A biochemist, Dr. Doudna is founder and president of the Innovative Genomics Institute, a research group dedicated to using genome engineering to treat human diseases and end hunger. Working with collaborator and co-Nobelist Emmanuelle Charpentier, Dr. Doudna developed CRISPR-Cas9, technology that allows scientists to change the DNA of plants, animals and humans with unprecedented precision. Tailoring the code of life using CRISPR’s molecular scissors is already revolutionizing the treatment of diseases previously believed to be incurable. At the event, Dr. Doudna will discuss research into this amazing family of proteins: where they came from, how they work, and how CRISPR-based technologies can be responsibly used to revolutionize research, biomedicine and agriculture.

Dr. Doudna will be introduced by the 2015 Alma Dea Morani Renaissance Woman Award recipient, Dr. Mary-Claire King.

The New York Academy of Medicine is proud to partner with The Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation to present this premier award and dynamic remarks. Join us as we recognize Dr. Doudna’s achievements, as well as the importance of women leaders in medicine.

About the Award
The Alma Dea Morani, MD Renaissance Woman Award recognizes an outstanding contemporary pioneer in the medical sciences. It was named for Alma Dea Morani, MD, the first woman admitted to the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons and an advocate for humanism in medicine. Recipients demonstrate professional excellence, a thirst for knowledge, and service beyond their medical practice or scientific endeavors. Learn more about the award.

About the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation
The Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation was founded with the strong belief that understanding our history plays a powerful role in shaping our future. The resolute stand women took to establish their place in these fields propels our vision forward. We serve as stewards to the stories from the past and take pride in sharing them with the women of today. Our mission is to preserve and promote the history of women in medicine and the medical sciences, and we look forward to connecting you to our collective legacy that will empower our future. Learn more at www.wimlf.org.

About Jennifer A. Doudna, PhD
Founder and President, Innovative Genomics Institute

Dr. Doudna is a biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley. Her groundbreaking development of CRISPR-Cas9—a genome engineering technology that allows researchers to edit DNA—with collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier earned the two the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and forever changed the course of human and agricultural genomics research. She is also the founder and president of the Innovative Genomics Institute, the Li Ka Shing chancellor’s chair in Biomedical and Health Sciences, and a member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Gladstone Institutes, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a leader in the global public debate on the responsible use of CRISPR and has co-founded and serves on the advisory panel of several companies that use the technology in unique ways. Doudna is the co-author of A Crack in Creation, a personal account of her research and the societal and ethical implications of gene editing.

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About Mary-Claire King, PhD
American Cancer Society Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genome Sciences, University of Washington

Mary-Claire King, PhD, is American Cancer Society Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle. She was the first to show that breast cancer is inherited in some families, as the result of mutations in the gene that she named BRCA1. In addition to inherited breast and ovarian cancer, her research interests include the genetic bases of schizophrenia, genetic disorders in children, and human evolution. She pioneered the use of DNA sequencing for human rights investigations. Dr. King has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and as a foreign member of the French Academy of Sciences. She has served on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health, the National Commission on Breast Cancer of the President’s Cancer Panel, multiple councils and study sections of the NIH, and as past president of the American Society of Human Genetics. She received the Lasker Special Achievement Award for Medical Research, the United States National Medal of Science, the Shaw Prize in Life Sciences & Medicine, and the 2015 Alma Dea Morani Award from the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation.