Emmanuelle Charpentier facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Emmanuelle Charpentier
Charpentier in 2015
Born	Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier (1968-12-11) 11 December 1968 (age 56) Juvisy-sur-Orge, France
Education	Pierre and Marie Curie University (BSc, MSc, PhD)
Known for	CRISPR
Awards	Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2015) Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2015) Princess of Asturias Award (2015) Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science (2016) Canada Gairdner International Award (2016) Leibniz Prize (2016) Pour le Mérite (2017) Japan Prize (2017) The Novozymes Prize (2017) Kavli Prize in Nanoscience (2018) Wolf Prize in Medicine (2020) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2020)
Scientific career
Fields	Microbiology Genetics Biochemistry
Institutions	University of Berlin University of Vienna Umeå University Max Planck Society
Thesis	Antibiotic resistance in Listeria spp (1995)
Doctoral advisor	Patrice Courvalin

Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier (born 11 December 1968) is a French scientist. She is a professor and researcher who studies tiny living things (microbiology), how traits are passed down (genetics), and the chemistry of life (biochemistry).

Since 2015, she has been a director at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Germany. In 2018, she started her own research center, the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens. In 2020, Charpentier and American biochemist Jennifer Doudna won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They received the award for creating a way to edit genes using a tool called CRISPR. This was the first time a science Nobel Prize was given only to two women.

Early Life and Education

Emmanuelle Charpentier was born in 1968 in Juvisy-sur-Orge, France. She studied biochemistry, microbiology, and genetics at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris.

From 1992 to 1995, she was a student at the Institut Pasteur. She earned her PhD degree there. Her PhD research looked into how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Her grandfather, who was Armenian, came to France to escape the Armenian Genocide.

Her Scientific Journey

The Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Germany

After her studies, Charpentier worked at different universities and research centers. She spent five years in the United States, working at places like Rockefeller University and New York University Medical Center.

During her time in the US, she studied how bacteria like Streptococcus pneumoniae change their genes. She also helped show how these bacteria can become resistant to medicines like vancomycin.

In 2002, Charpentier returned to Europe. She became a lab head and professor at the University of Vienna in Austria. There, she found an important RNA molecule in Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria. This molecule helps control how harmful the bacteria are.

Later, she moved to Sweden to work at Umeå University. In 2013, she moved to Germany to lead a department at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research. In 2015, she joined the Max Planck Society and became a director in Berlin.

Discovering CRISPR/Cas9

Emmanuelle Charpentier is most famous for her work on a bacterial immune system called CRISPR/Cas9. She figured out how this system works and then turned it into a powerful tool for genome editing. Genome editing means making very precise changes to the DNA of living things.

She discovered a new way that a special RNA molecule, called tracrRNA, helps the CRISPR/Cas9 system work. This small RNA is key for the system to cut DNA correctly.

In 2011, Charpentier met Jennifer Doudna at a science conference. They started working together. Their labs showed that the Cas9 protein could be used to cut any specific DNA sequence. They found a way to combine Cas9 with a simple "guide RNA" molecule. This guide RNA is like a GPS for Cas9, telling it exactly where to cut.

This discovery meant that CRISPR-Cas9 could be used to edit genes much more easily than before. Scientists all over the world now use this method to change the DNA of plants, animals, and human cells. CRISPR has changed the field of genetics. It helps scientists understand how genes cause health and disease. It also offers new ways to develop gene therapies to treat illnesses.

In 2013, Charpentier helped start two companies, CRISPR Therapeutics and ERS Genomics. These companies work on developing CRISPR technology.

Awards and Recognition

Emmanuelle Charpentier in the Senate Chamber of York University in 2016, after giving her Gairdner Foundation International Award Lecture

In 2015, Time magazine named Charpentier one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She shared this honor with Jennifer Doudna.

She has received many important awards for her work, including:

• 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
• The Kavli Prize in Nanoscience
• The Wolf Prize in Medicine

She has also received many honorary doctorate degrees from universities around the world. These include degrees from New York University, University of Cambridge, and McGill University.

Charpentier is also a member of many important scientific groups, such as the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Honorary Doctorate Degrees

• 2016 – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• 2016 – KU, (Catholic University) Leuven, Belgium
• 2016 – New York University (NYU)
• 2017 – Faculty of Medicine, Umeå University, Sweden
• 2017 – University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
• 2017 – Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• 2018 – Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
• 2018 – University of Cambridge
• 2018 – University of Manchester
• 2019 – McGill University, Canada
• 2024 – University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Memberships

• 2014 – European Molecular Biology Organisation
• 2015 – National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 2016 – Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
• 2016 – Austrian Academy of Sciences
• 2016 – Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• 2017 – U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Foreign Associate
• 2017 – National Academy of Technologies of France
• 2017 – French Académie des sciences
• 2018 – European Academy of Sciences and Arts
• 2021 – Pontifical Academy of Sciences
• 2024 – Foreign Member of the Royal Society

See also

In Spanish: Emmanuelle Charpentier para niños