News Release

Honorary doctorate for Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna

Grant and Award Announcement

KU Leuven

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, University of Leuven

image: Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) on 10 February 2016 view more 

Credit: Submitted by the researchers. Copyright for the image of E. Charpentier: Hallbauer & Fioretti

On Feb. 10, 2016, the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) will confer a joint honorary doctorate on Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna. On the occasion of its Patron Saint's Day, the university wishes to honour them for their ground-breaking work in the field of genome editing.

On the basis of fundamental research into the immune system of bacteria, Professor Emmanuelle Charpentier and Professor Jennifer Doudna demonstrated that the CRISPR-Cas9 defence system could be harnessed to alter the genetic code in a targeted way. Their discovery has revolutionised the methodology for studying the genome and opens unexpected possibilities for the treatment of genetic disorders.

An interview with honorary doctors Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna is available here: http://www.kuleuven.be/english/news/2016/doudna_and_charpentier.

On the occasion of its Patron Saint's Day, KU Leuven will also award honorary doctorates to Italian writer Alessandro Baricco, human rights activist Peter N. Bouckaert, engineer and computer scientist Anantha P. Chandrakasan, and dispute resolution expert Carrie J. Menkel-Meadow. More information about the honourees is available here: http://www.kuleuven.be/english/news/2015/ku-leuven-awards-five-honorary-doctorates.

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You are cordially invited to attend our Patron Saint's Day celebrations in Leuven on Feb. 10, 2016. We kindly ask you to register via nieuws@kuleuven.be.

For more information about the event, please consult our website: http://www.kuleuven.be/patronsfeast/2016/patron-saints-day.

For interview requests, please contact Sigrid Somers (32-475-87-40-08).


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