Congratulations to Martin Jinek (VS 2015) who this year receives both the Max Cloëtta Prize and the Marcel Benoist Prize in recognition of his groundbreaking work on CRISPR-Cas genome-editing technologies. Jinek, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Zurich, is being honoured for his outstanding research on RNA-controlled molecular systems capable of specifically targeting cellular genetic material, as well as their application in genome editing. Together with other researchers, Martin Jinek played a key role in further developing the natural CRISPR-Cas9 system into a programmable tool for the targeted modification of DNA. This led to the CRISPR-Cas9 technology for genome editing – also known as ‘genetic scissors’ – which earned Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Through his research, Martin Jinek deepens our understanding of molecular biological processes and opens up new approaches in a wide variety of fields, such as biomedicine (gene therapy), biotechnology and innovative agriculture.  Read more...