Nobel Laureates · Nº 05

CRISPR

A footnote in 1987. Rejected by four journals. Now it cures people.
8 cards · The people behind the prize.
01 / 08
1987
a strange sequence, in a paper about something else…
In Osaka, Yoshizumi Ishino was sequencing a gene about phosphate metabolism when he ran into something odd beside it: a twenty-nine letter sequence, repeating, with unrelated DNA between the copies. He described it and moved on.
Ishino et al., J. Bacteriol. 1987 — CRISPR repeats found incidentally beside the iap gene in E. coli; function unknown at the time.
02 / 08
Rejected without review
he had worked out what it was for…
Francisco Mojica found the same repeats in microbes from Spanish salt flats. By 2003 he knew what they were: fragments of viruses their ancestors had survived. Nature rejected the paper without review. Three more journals said no.
Mojica, Univ. of Alicante; coined CRISPR c. 2001; spacer–phage match published in J. Molecular Evolution, Feb 2005 after rejections from Nature, PNAS, Molecular Microbiology and Nucleic Acids Research.
03 / 08
2007
and the proof came from a yogurt company…
Danisco made cultures for yogurt and ice cream, and viruses kept destroying them. Philippe Horvath's team showed that adding a virus's DNA to the bacterium's array made it immune to that exact virus.
Barrangou, Horvath et al., 'CRISPR provides acquired resistance against viruses in prokaryotes', Science 315:1709–1712 (2007), in Streptococcus thermophilus.
04 / 08
Then someone aimed it
the part that made it a tool…
In June 2012 Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna published the step that mattered. The system used two RNA molecules to find its target; they fused them into one. Whatever you wrote into that guide was what the enzyme cut.
Jinek, Chylinski, Fonfara, Hauer, Doudna, Charpentier, 'A programmable dual-RNA-guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity', Science 337:816–821, published online 28 June 2012.
05 / 08
2020
and a list with three places on it…
They took the Nobel in Chemistry — the first science Nobel shared by two women and no man. Mojica was not on it, nor Ishino, nor Horvath. The prize allows three names. The work had passed through more.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020, Charpentier and Doudna, 'for the development of a method for genome editing'. Statutes limit a prize to three laureates.
06 / 08
Then two children were born
November 2018, and nobody had agreed to this…
He Jiankui announced he had edited human embryos, and that twin girls had been born. He had forged the ethics approval. A Shenzhen court gave him three years. What was actually done to those children is still not known.
He Jiankui announced the births 26 Nov 2018; convicted of illegal medical practice, sentenced to 3 years and fined 3m yuan, 30 Dec 2019; released April 2022. The induced CCR5 edits did not match the naturally occurring delta-32 variant.
07 / 08
14 years
of arguing about who owns it…
Berkeley filed in May 2012. The Broad Institute filed in December, paid to jump the queue, and was granted first. In 2026 the patent board sided with the Broad again. Fourteen years on, who owns this is still not settled.
UC Berkeley filed May 2012; Broad Institute filed Dec 2012 with accelerated examination. Federal Circuit vacated and remanded May 2025; PTAB reaffirmed Broad priority for eukaryotic use, March 2026. Academic use requires no licence.
08 / 08
$2.2M
what the finished cure costs…
In December 2023 a CRISPR cure for sickle cell was approved in America. It switches off one gene so the body restarts the haemoglobin it used in the womb. Victoria Gray, treated first, has had none of the crises that used to hospitalise her. It costs two point two million dollars.
Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel) FDA-approved 8 Dec 2023 for sickle cell disease; edits the BCL11A enhancer to reactivate fetal haemoglobin; list price $2.2M. Victoria Gray dosed July 2019.

Sources

  1. Ishino et al., J. Bacteriol. 1987 — CRISPR repeats found incidentally beside the iap gene in E. coli; function unknown at the time.
  2. Mojica, Univ. of Alicante; coined CRISPR c. 2001; spacer–phage match published in J. Molecular Evolution, Feb 2005 after rejections from Nature, PNAS, Molecular Microbiology and Nucleic Acids Research.
  3. Barrangou, Horvath et al., 'CRISPR provides acquired resistance against viruses in prokaryotes', Science 315:1709–1712 (2007), in Streptococcus thermophilus.
  4. Jinek, Chylinski, Fonfara, Hauer, Doudna, Charpentier, 'A programmable dual-RNA-guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity', Science 337:816–821, published online 28 June 2012.
  5. Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020, Charpentier and Doudna, 'for the development of a method for genome editing'. Statutes limit a prize to three laureates.
  6. He Jiankui announced the births 26 Nov 2018; convicted of illegal medical practice, sentenced to 3 years and fined 3m yuan, 30 Dec 2019; released April 2022. The induced CCR5 edits did not match the naturally occurring delta-32 variant.
  7. UC Berkeley filed May 2012; Broad Institute filed Dec 2012 with accelerated examination. Federal Circuit vacated and remanded May 2025; PTAB reaffirmed Broad priority for eukaryotic use, March 2026. Academic use requires no licence.
  8. Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel) FDA-approved 8 Dec 2023 for sickle cell disease; edits the BCL11A enhancer to reactivate fetal haemoglobin; list price $2.2M. Victoria Gray dosed July 2019.

Image credits

  1. Enterobacteria phage T2 transmission electron micrograph.jpg — SnaxMikn, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
  2. E coli at 10000x, original.jpg — Photo by Eric Erbe, digital colorization by Christopher Pooley, both of USDA, ARS, EMU., Public domain · Commons
  3. Saltmine Sta Pola Alacant.jpg — Gorkaazk, Public domain · Commons
  4. Joghurt.jpg — No machine-readable author provided. Rainer Zenz assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons
  5. GRNA-Cas9.png — Marius Walter, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
  6. Emmanuelle Charpentier.jpg + Professor Jennifer Doudna ForMemRS.jpg — Emmanuelle Charpentier by Bianca Fioretti (Hallbauer & Fioretti); Jennifer Doudna by Duncan.Hull / The Royal Society, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
  7. Night of SUSTech.jpg — Sparktour, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
  8. US Patent Office main building.jpg — RadioFan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
  9. Sickle cell anemia smear.jpg — SpicyMilkBoy, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

More from Nobel Laureates

Nº 01
Auctions
Two economists who didn't study a market. They built one.
Nº 02
Equilibrium
He proved everyone can be doing their best, and everyone can be losing.
Nº 03
Commons
Economics said shared land must die. She went and looked.
Nº 04
Ulcers
Every doctor knew nothing survives stomach acid. One doctor drank the proof.
Nº 06
Wormwood
A secret military project. A recipe from the year 340. She took the first dose herself.
Nº 07
Graphene
Physics had proved it could not exist. They found it with sticky tape, on a Friday night.