Recently, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, have just made history. You may have heard about it in the news, but if you haven’t, they have just won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of a method for gene editing.
They discovered that CRISPR-Cas9 protein can edit a cell’s DNA and modify it with the utmost precision. This is huge. In summary, this can revolutionize medicine because this discovery brings an abundance of opportunities scientists and researchers can now practice. This can mean innovating cancer therapies and curing inherited and genetic diseases.
Doudna and Charpentier had begun their research in 2012, and it was then practiced by other researchers immediately. At first, their research was controversial. Gene editing is an enormous power tool that can raise some tough moral questions because this discovery can be used in the wrong way. However, it is important to note that new technologies like this can have a huge benefit to the human race and in order for them to be used appropriately, it is important for people to understand them.
Along with their discovery, it is important to note that this was an all-female led research team. In 2018, there have only been five womxn who have won a Nobel prize in Chemistry versus 856 men who have won one in this field. Doudna and Charpentier have just made it to seven. This enormous gender gap proves womxn are underrepresented in this field, and it is time for a dramatic shift to equalize the playing field.
As a womxn in STEM myself, I was immediately in awe. I hope other womxn in STEM feel the same way. I was not sure if I wanted to pursue research in my undergraduate years because I felt it was too advanced for me. However, after reading tons of articles about this news, I grew very interested. This whole research project began with just one hypothesis, one scientific question. These two womxn had the drive, the hard work, and dedication to achieve this prize. This made me realize that I too can accomplish great things in my field.
As time goes on, I hope I see more womxn in STEM being recognized. It took Doudna and Charpentier years to finally be recognized, and there are also other womxn who have had scientific breakthroughs that are still yet to be recognized. I also hope that soon more womxn enter the STEM field to close the discrepancy in achievements between men and womxn, and in other fields, this is happening as well.