Women in Science: Congrats to Nobel Prize Laureates in Chemistry

[Bowling4Bikes]

What an exciting time in science!

Congratulations to Dr.s Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna (at UC Berkeley!) on their honor of receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their majorly, hugely, massively important work on the CRISPR/Cas9 program. In short, it's a way to edit genetic information in a way the scientific community has never been able to do before.

I put "women in science" in the title to get clicks, but honestly, having women accomplishing such greatness in science isn't even really a story anymore to me. I work with extremely intelligent, if not brilliant, women on the daily.

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/summary/

 

[Butch]

Smart women rock.
Thank you for sharing.

 

[budman]

Congrats to them both. :thumbup

1/2 share each. What kind of scrilla does a Nobel Prize provide??

 

[Bowling4Bikes]

Congrats to them both. :thumbup

1/2 share each. What kind of scrilla does a Nobel Prize provide??

IIRC it's a cool million. :drevil

edit: looks like the going rate is 9 mil for a full prize (plus the 18 karat medal)

 

[cfives]

I think that it is still roughly a million US dollars, and a crate of dynamite. Everyone seems to overlook the free crate of dynamite, not really sure why.

 

[Map8]

I think that it is still roughly a million US dollars, and a crate of dynamite. Everyone seems to overlook the free crate of dynamite, not really sure why.

I think the dynamite is usually donated to gender reveal parties.

 

[budman]

edit: looks like the going rate is 9 mil for a full prize (plus the 18 karat medal)

9 mil francs?? :wow

Bank. :thumbup

Good to see important life stuff properly rewarded.

 

[cfives]

I think the dynamite is usually donated to gender reveal parties.

Makes sense, it emphasizes the potential dangers of innovation and propagation.

 

[Johndicezx9]

And kudos to American poet Louise Glück for Winning in literature.

 

[TylerW]

Don't you mean scientists?

 

[lgyee4]

Go Bears!

 

[cfives]

Kinda weird that they got the prize in Chemistry, not Medicine (life science), but extremely impressive, regardless.

 

[Bowling4Bikes]

Kinda weird that they got the prize in Chemistry, not Medicine (life science), but extremely impressive, regardless.

I think this is a good topic to discuss, thanks for bringing it up. I would guess for two reasons:

1) and probably the biggest reason why not medicine, is it's because the CRISPR/cas9 gene editing (bio)chemical process is not specific to the human genome and is used for non-medicinal purposes.

2) The more interesting, ethical reason: i.e. if genes are edited in an embryo for example and then implanted and brought to term (as was the case with Lulu, Nana, and baby#3(?))... no matter what the reason is to do it, there is an unforseen consequence that we just don't know the result of. At this point I'm not certain that medicinal value has been proven. Please share info if you have something, thanks.

https://www.sciencealert.com/china-...t=More than a year ago,of twins Lulu and Nana.

 

[littlebeast]

I think this is a good topic to discuss, thanks for bringing it up. I would guess for two reasons:

1) and probably the biggest reason why not medicine, is it's because the CRISPR/cas9 gene editing (bio)chemical process is not specific to the human genome and is used for non-medicinal purposes.

2) The more interesting, ethical reason: i.e. if genes are edited in an embryo for example and then implanted and brought to term (as was the case with Lulu, Nana, and baby#3(?))... no matter what the reason is to do it, there is an unforseen consequence that we just don't know the result of. At this point I'm not certain that medicinal value has been proven. Please share info if you have something, thanks.

https://www.sciencealert.com/china-...t=More than a year ago,of twins Lulu and Nana.

awesome post. thanks for that.

 

[cfives]

I think this is a good topic to discuss, thanks for bringing it up. I would guess for two reasons:

1) and probably the biggest reason why not medicine, is it's because the CRISPR/cas9 gene editing (bio)chemical process is not specific to the human genome and is used for non-medicinal purposes.

2) The more interesting, ethical reason: i.e. if genes are edited in an embryo for example and then implanted and brought to term (as was the case with Lulu, Nana, and baby#3(?))... no matter what the reason is to do it, there is an unforseen consequence that we just don't know the result of. At this point I'm not certain that medicinal value has been proven. Please share info if you have something, thanks.

https://www.sciencealert.com/china-...t=More than a year ago,of twins Lulu and Nana.

At first, I assumed that it was due to continuity, because the Nobel prize was awarded to Watson/Crick/Wilkins for the discovery of the nature/structure of DNA in the Chemistry category. However, a quick web search, shows that they received the award under the Medicine/Physiology category. Your thoughtful post/reasoning, motivated me to look for a logical reason for the classification, not an arbitrary/political one.

Both of your reasons are interesting, but still don't justify the weird (in my mind) classification. However, the nature/utility of the CRISPR/cas9 tool is in breaking, then forming new chemical bonds in a molecule, which is the very essence of chemistry. My gen chem instructor liked to describe chemistry as, "the dance of the electrons", and looking at the tool through that lense, the categorization makes much more sense to me.

 

[bikeama]

Good article my daughter sent me.

"While debate over the Nobel selections might simmer in some quarters, Doudna’s former student (and co-author of A Crack in Creation), Samuel Sternberg, PhD, reflected on the award on Twitter.

“Nobels are also bittersweet, because [so] many more folks deserve the award than can receive it. Michael ‘Michi’ Hauer was the first to purify Cas9 in Jennifer’s lab, while working with Martin Jínek. He died last year, but would have been ecstatic to hear the news today.”"

My daughter worked with 'Michi' at the FMI lab in Basel Switzerland. He died climbing in the Swiss Alps, fell only 10 ft but landed bad.

 

[Bowling4Bikes]

At first, I assumed that it was due to continuity, because the Nobel prize was awarded to Watson/Crick/Wilkins for the discovery of the nature/structure of DNA in the Chemistry category. However, a quick web search, shows that they received the award under the Medicine/Physiology category. Your thoughtful post/reasoning, motivated me to look for a logical reason for the classification, not an arbitrary/political one.

Both of your reasons are interesting, but still don't justify the weird (in my mind) classification. However, the nature/utility of the CRISPR/cas9 tool is in breaking, then forming new chemical bonds in a molecule, which is the very essence of chemistry. My gen chem instructor liked to describe chemistry as, "the dance of the electrons", and looking at the tool through that lense, the categorization makes much more sense to me.

I hadn't thought of it like that. hmm, yeah I really don't know.

I like that description. That concept started to make more sense to me in the biochemistry series, where we got to learn about how those electrons are shuttled around biologically. The release and bonding of a phosphate (PO4-) group tends to be involved in many of these processes, for example. In essence, life is just an extremely complex series of ion transfers.

Good article my daughter sent me.

"While debate over the Nobel selections might simmer in some quarters, Doudna’s former student (and co-author of A Crack in Creation), Samuel Sternberg, PhD, reflected on the award on Twitter.

“Nobels are also bittersweet, because [so] many more folks deserve the award than can receive it. Michael ‘Michi’ Hauer was the first to purify Cas9 in Jennifer’s lab, while working with Martin Jínek. He died last year, but would have been ecstatic to hear the news today.”"

My daughter worked with 'Michi' at the FMI lab in Basel Switzerland. He died climbing in the Swiss Alps, fell only 10 ft but landed bad.

RIP Michi. Some people have this gift of both a deeper understanding of something than most, and the ability to do something about it.

Scientific history is filled with those who contributed with no official award. Rosalind Franklin in reference to cfives's post. She sounds like the Michi of the double stranded DNA discovery.

I'm fond of Henrietta Lacks, who inspires me to remember that just being present and helping really smart people in whatever way, can result in something great haha. She's now technically the largest and oldest person to ever exist, all without ever really knowing why. But without her beautifully screwed up cells, the world may be a different place.

 

[HappyHighwayman]

Congrats to some well deserve science women.

 

[Eldritch]

What an exciting time in science!

Congratulations to Dr.s Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna (at UC Berkeley!) on their honor of receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their majorly, hugely, massively important work on the CRISPR/Cas9 program. In short, it's a way to edit genetic information in a way the scientific community has never been able to do before.

I put "women in science" in the title to get clicks, but honestly, having women accomplishing such greatness in science isn't even really a story anymore to me. I work with extremely intelligent, if not brilliant, women on the daily.

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/summary/

The U.S.A. and France continue to make the ideas together that will shape the entire future of the species.

Excellent news.