Jennifer Doudna

Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced Monday that he created the world’s first genetically edited babies with the gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9, prompting pushback from members of the scientific community over ethical concerns.

World-renowned scientists, including UC Berkeley professors Jennifer Doudna and Ian Agol, spoke at the annual Breakthrough Prize Symposium on Monday, sharing key insights on their discoveries and anticipating imminent challenges in their respective fields.

UC Berkeley announced Tuesday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted a patent to CRISPR, a gene-editing technology.

Campus molecular biology and biochemistry professor Jennifer Doudna was awarded the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor on Oct. 18 for her role in developing CRISPR-Cas9, a revolutionary gene-editing technology.

In a collaborative effort, a research team composed of scientists from UC Berkeley and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute discovered a CRISPR protein, Cas14, the smallest gene-editing tool known to date.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ultimately ruled that patents held for inventions by the Broad Institute, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are distinct from the UC’s patents. The institutions have engaged in a long battle over the patents, which have the potential to secure both prestige and billions of dollars in licensing agreements.

Jennifer Doudna, campus professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, who co-discovered the genome-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9, will open a lab at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco to expand her research.

Campus molecular biology and biochemistry professor Jennifer Doudna was awarded the 2018 Kavli Prize in nanoscience for her role in discovering CRISPR, a revolutionary gene-editing technology, in a gala hosted by Norwegian King Harald V on Tuesday.