Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/19
By: Lillian Wu, Y.F. Low, Elaine Hou and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, June 19 (CNA) Three scientists — Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer Doudna and Feng

Zhang (張鋒) — were named the winners of the second Tang Prize in biopharmaceutical science on Sunday “for the development of CRISPR/Cas 9 as a breakthrough genome editing platform that promises to revolutionize biomedical research and disease treatment.”

Taiwanese Nobel laureate Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), who chairs the Tang Prize Selection Committee, made the announcement at a press conference in Taipei.

CRISPR/Cas9 is a unique genome editing technology that enables geneticists and medical researchers to edit parts of the genome by cutting out, replacing or adding parts to the DNA sequence.

The technology, which allows scientists to target and mutate one or more genes in the genome of a cell of interest, has been touted as the simplest, most versatile and precise method of genetic editing currently available.     [FULL  STORY]