Jennifer Doudna, professor of biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology and chemistry, has received the 2018 National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences for her pioneering discoveries on RNA folding and for the invention, with Emmanuelle Charpentier, of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology.

Following her discoveries on how RNA can fold to function in complex ways, Doudna, along with Charpentier, invented the technology for efficient site-specific genome engineering using the CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases for genome editing — a breakthrough technology which has had an immediate and wide impact on all areas of both basic and applied life sciences.

Doudna was honored in a ceremony in April during the National Academy of Sciences’ 155th annual meeting.