Jennifer Anne Doudna ForMemRS (born February 19, 1964) is an American biochemist who started important work in CRISPR gene editing and made key contributions to biochemistry and genetics. She won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Emmanuelle Charpentier for developing a method to edit genomes. She holds the Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Chair Professor position in the chemistry and molecular and cell biology departments at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been a researcher with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1997.
In 2012, Doudna and Charpentier were the first to suggest that CRISPR-Cas9 (enzymes from bacteria that help control immunity in microbes) could be used to edit genomes in a controlled way. This discovery is considered one of the most important in biology history. Since then, Doudna has been a leading scientist in the "CRISPR revolution" because of her work and leadership in developing CRISPR-based genome editing.
Doudna has received many awards, including the 2000 Alan T. Waterman Award for her research on the structure of a ribozyme using X-ray crystallography and the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for CRISPR-Cas9 technology with Charpentier. She has also won the Gruber Prize in Genetics (2015), the Tang Prize (2016), the Canada Gairdner International Award (2016), and the Japan Prize (2017). She was named one of the Time 100 most influential people in 2015 and inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2023. In 2020, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Charpentier for creating CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology, which has changed molecular biology and offers new ways to treat genetic diseases.
Early life and education
Jennifer Doudna was born on February 19, 1964, in Washington, D.C. Her parents were Dorothy Jane (Williams) and Martin Kirk Doudna. Her father earned a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Michigan. Her mother had a master's degree in education. When Jennifer was seven, her family moved to Hawaii. Her father took a teaching job in American literature at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Her mother later earned another master's degree in Asian history from the same university and taught history at a local community college.
Growing up in Hilo, Hawaii, Jennifer became interested in the plants and animals of the area. Her father enjoyed reading about science and had books on popular science at home. When Jennifer was in the sixth grade, he gave her a copy of James Watson’s 1968 book The Double Helix, which described the discovery of DNA’s structure. This book greatly inspired her. She also developed an interest in science and mathematics during school.
At Hilo High School, her 10th-grade chemistry teacher, Jeanette Wong, helped develop her interest in science. Jennifer has often said that Ms. Wong was a major influence in sparking her early scientific curiosity. A visiting lecturer who spoke about cancer cells also encouraged her to consider a career in science. Jennifer spent a summer working in the laboratory of mycologist Don Hemmes at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She graduated from Hilo High School in 1981.
As an undergraduate student at Pomona College in Claremont, California, Jennifer studied biochemistry. In her first year, she questioned whether she could succeed in science and considered switching her major to French. However, her French teacher encouraged her to stay in science. Chemistry professors Fred Grieman and Corwin Hansch at Pomona College had a major impact on her. She began her first scientific research in the laboratory of professor Sharon Panasenko. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biochemistry in 1985. Jennifer chose Harvard Medical School for her doctoral studies and earned a Ph.D. in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology in 1989. Her Ph.D. research focused on a system that improved the efficiency of self-replicating catalytic RNA. Her doctoral advisor was Jack W. Szostak.
Career and research
After completing her Ph.D., she held research positions in molecular biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and in genetics at Harvard Medical School. From 1991 to 1994, she worked as the Lucille P. Markey Postdoctoral Scholar in Biomedical Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she collaborated with Thomas Cech. As of 2025, Doudna has an h-index of 166 according to Google Scholar and of 134 according to Scopus.
Early in her career, Doudna studied the structure and function of RNA enzymes, also called ribozymes. While working in the Szostak lab, she modified a self-splicing RNA molecule called the Tetrahymena Group I catalytic intron into a true catalytic ribozyme that copied RNA templates. Her work focused on designing ribozymes and understanding their mechanisms. However, she realized that the inability to observe these mechanisms was a major challenge. To address this, she moved to the lab of Thomas Cech at the University of Colorado Boulder to determine the three-dimensional structure of a ribozyme for the first time, allowing scientists to compare ribozyme structures with those of enzymes, which are protein-based catalysts. She began this project in 1991 and completed it at Yale University in 1996. Doudna joined Yale’s Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry as an assistant professor in 1994.
At Yale, Doudna’s team successfully crystallized and solved the three-dimensional structure of the catalytic core of the Tetrahymena Group I ribozyme. They discovered that five magnesium ions clustered in a specific region of the ribozyme’s P4-P6 domain, forming a hydrophobic core that helped the structure fold. This is similar to how proteins typically have hydrophobic amino acids at their core but chemically different. Her group also crystallized other ribozymes, including the Hepatitis Delta Virus ribozyme. This work on RNA structures led to further studies on an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) and protein-RNA complexes like the signal recognition particle.
In 2000, Doudna was promoted to the Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale. From 2000 to 2001, she served as the Robert Burns Woodward Visiting Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University.
In 2002, she joined her husband, Jamie Cate, at the University of California, Berkeley, where she became a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. She also gained access to the synchrotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for experiments using high-powered X-ray diffraction.
In 2009, Doudna took a leave of absence from Berkeley to work at Genentech, where she led discovery research. She returned to Berkeley after two months with the help of colleague Michael Marletta, canceling her other obligations to focus on CRISPR research.
As of 2023, Doudna was based at the University of California, Berkeley, where she directs the Innovative Genomics Institute, a collaboration between Berkeley and UCSF that she founded to develop genome editing technology and apply it to challenges in human health, agriculture, and climate change. She holds the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Professorship in Biomedicine and Health and chairs the Chancellor’s Advisor Committee on Biology. Her lab now studies the structure and function of CRISPR-Cas systems, develops new genome editing tools, and creates delivery methods for CRISPR-based therapies.
Doudna was introduced to CRISPR in 2006 by Jillian Banfield, who found her through a Google search for "RNAi and UC Berkeley." In 2012, Doudna and her colleagues discovered a method to edit DNA more efficiently. This method uses a protein called Cas9 from the Streptococcus bacterial CRISPR immune system, which works with guide RNA to cut DNA like scissors. The protein targets and slices viral DNA, preventing infections. This system was first discovered by Yoshizumi Ishino and colleagues in 1987 and later studied by Francisco Mojica. Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier were the first to show that different RNAs could be used to program the system to cut and edit various DNAs.
As CRISPR is increasingly used to edit multicellular organisms, Doudna has been involved in discussions about the ethical implications of altering organisms using CRISPR. Her discovery has been expanded by many research groups for applications in cell biology, plant and animal research, and treatments for diseases such as sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, and HIV. Doudna and other scientists called for a global pause on clinical applications of gene editing using CRISPR. She supports the use of CRISPR for somatic gene editing, which does not pass genetic changes to future generations, but opposes germline gene editing.
The CRISPR system created a new, simple way to edit DNA, leading to a rush to patent the technique. Doudna and her collaborators at UC Berkeley applied for a patent, as did a group at the Broad Institute affiliated with MIT and Harvard. Feng Zhang at the Broad Institute demonstrated that CRISPR-Cas9 could edit genes in human cells shortly after Doudna and Charpentier published their method. A patent was granted to the Broad Institute before the UC Berkeley application was decided, leading to a lawsuit. In 2017, a court ruled in favor of the Broad Institute, stating they initiated the research first and applied it to human cells. UC Berkeley appealed, arguing they had clearly described how to use the technique. In 2018, the appeals court upheld the Broad Institute’s patent. Meanwhile, UC Berkeley’s patent for the general CRISPR technique was also granted. In Europe, the Broad Institute’s claim to have started the research first was rejected due to a procedural error.
Doudna cofounded Caribou Biosciences in 2011 to commercialize CRISPR technology. In 2013, she cofounded Editas Medicine with Feng Zhang and others, though she left in 2014. She later declined an offer to join CRISPR Therapeutics after her experience at Editas. Doudna is also a cofounder of Caribou spin-offs Intellia Therapeutics and Scribe Therapeutics, which developed CasX, a more compact version of Cas9 for efficient DNA cutting.
In 2017, Doudna co-authored A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution with Samuel H. Sternberg. This book provides a first-person account of the CRISPR breakthrough for the general public.
In addition to CRISPR, Doudna discovered that the hepatitis C virus uses an unusual method to produce viral proteins. This research could lead to new drugs that stop infections without harming the body.
"I have great optimism about what CRISPR can do to cure genetic diseases and improve sustainable agriculture, but I am also concerned that the benefits of the technology might not reach those who need it most."
Personal life
Jennifer Doudna married Tom Griffin in 1988. Griffin was a graduate student at Harvard, like Doudna. They divorced after a few years. Griffin wanted to move to Boulder, Colorado, where Doudna was interested in working with Thomas Cech. At the University of Colorado, Doudna worked as a postdoctoral researcher and met Jamie Cate, a graduate student. They collaborated on a project to study the structure of the Tetrahymena Group I intron P4-P6 catalytic region. Doudna later brought Cate to Yale, and they married in Hawaii in 2000. Cate became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Doudna joined him in Boston at Harvard. In 2002, both accepted positions at the University of California, Berkeley, and moved there together. Cate preferred Berkeley’s less formal environment compared to his earlier work at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Doudna liked that Berkeley is a public university. Cate is a professor at Berkeley and studies ways to edit yeast genes to improve their ability to produce biofuel. Doudna and Cate have a son born in 2002. Their son attends UC Berkeley and studies electrical engineering and computer science. They live in Berkeley.
Awards and honors
Doudna was a Searle Scholar and received the 1996 Beckman Young Investigators Award. In 2000, she was given the Alan T. Waterman Award, the National Science Foundation’s highest honor, which recognizes an outstanding researcher under the age of 35 for her work determining the structure of a ribozyme. In 2001, she received the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (ACS).
In 2015, she and Emmanuelle Charpentier were awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for their contributions to CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology. In 2016, she and Charpentier, Feng Zhang, Philippe Horvath, and Rodolphe Barrangou received the Canada Gairdner International Award. Also in 2016, she received the Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics. She has also been a co-recipient of the Gruber Prize in Genetics (2015), the Tang Prize (2016), the Japan Prize (2017), and the Albany Medical Center Prize (2017). In 2018, Doudna was awarded the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences, the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize from the Rockefeller University, and a Medal of Honor from the American Cancer Society. Also in 2018, she received the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience (jointly with Emmanuelle Charpentier and Virginijus Šikšnys). In 2019, she received the Harvey Prize of the Technion/Israel for the year 2018 (jointly with Emmanuelle Charpentier and Feng Zhang) and the LUI Che Woo Prize in the category of Welfare Betterment. In 2020, she received the Wolf Prize in Medicine (jointly with Emmanuelle Charpentier). Also in 2020, Doudna and Charpentier were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the development of a method for genome editing." In 2025, she was given the National Medal of Technology and Innovation and was named the recipient of the 2026 Priestley Medal by the ACS. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2026.
She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003, the National Academy of Medicine in 2010, and the National Academy of Inventors in 2014. In 2015, together with Charpentier, she became a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. She was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2016. In 2017, Doudna was awarded the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 2020, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2021, she received the Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics from the Association for Molecular Pathology. In 2021, Pope Francis appointed Doudna, along with two other women Nobel laureates, Donna Strickland and Emmanuelle Charpentier, as members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
She and Charpentier were named one of the Time 100 most influential people in 2015. She was a runner-up for Time Person of the Year in 2016 alongside other CRISPR researchers. In 2018 and 2023, she received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from USC and Harvard, respectively.