This year’s Forska! Sverige’s research award will be awarded to professor Emmanuelle Charpentier, for her discovery about the CRISPR-Cas9 mechanism.
The CRISP-Cas9 system has been shown to have unique potential for gene editing in all living cells and organisms. The award will be handed out on May 2nd at the Forska!Sverige Day at the Tessin Palace in Stockholm.
Charpentier is a scientist in microbiology, genetics and biochemistry. Since 2015 she is the Director of the Regulation in Infection Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. Since 2009, she is also the head of a research group at MIMS (Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden) at the Umeå university, where her discovery was made.
“Charpentiers discovery is a real milestone for life science. The CRISP-Cas9 system has revolutionized the possibilities for performing molecular medicine studies with the purpose of developing new treatments against serious diseases and even prevent diseases,” says Anna Nilsson Vindefjärd at Forska!Sverige.
Charpentier has repetedly emphasized the importance of Umeå university’s great reserach environment, as well as the supporting systems that benefit the possibilities for research breakthroughs.
Photo: Hallbauer & Fioretti
