{"id":136449,"date":"2020-10-09T12:16:08","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T16:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=136449"},"modified":"2023-01-24T14:44:13","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T19:44:13","slug":"2019-commencement-speaker-jennifer-doudna-wins-2020-nobel-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2020\/10\/09\/2019-commencement-speaker-jennifer-doudna-wins-2020-nobel-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 Commencement speaker Jennifer Doudna wins 2020 Nobel Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Saying goodbye to Jennifer Doudna after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2019\/05\/26\/commencement-2019-scientists-must-rebuild-public-trust-in-their-work-says-crispr-pioneer\/\">Commencement 2019<\/a>, Bates biologist Larissa Williams called out, \u201cI can\u2019t wait to hear about your Nobel!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, that didn\u2019t take long. On Wednesday, the 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/10\/07\/science\/nobel-prize-chemistry-crispr.html\">Nobel Prize in Chemistry was jointly awarded to Doudna<\/a> and research colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier for their discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 technology, a radically accessible approach to editing the DNA of any organism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During Commencement weekend in 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty-expertise\/profile\/larissa-m-williams\/\">Williams, an associate professor of biology<\/a>, had the honor of serving as Doudna\u2019s faculty host. A traditional Commencement role, the faculty host helps the visiting dignitary feel at ease, welcomed, and well-guided through the many and varied weekend events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Commencement Address | Jennifer A. Doudna | Commencement 2019 | Bates College\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4WXNXWlP110?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At the honorand dinner the night before Commencement, held at the downtown Royal Oak Room, each faculty host offers a welcoming tribute to their guest, followed by a toast. In her remarks, Williams put Doudna\u2019s groundbreaking work into lay terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams described how Doudna and her colleagues were able to \u201cuncover a gene editing process that already existed in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That process was found in bacteria and archaea, which had developed a primitive immune system as a defense against attacking viruses. Simply put, these organisms would \u201ccut up invading viruses,\u201d Williams said. From that, the researchers were able to \u201cfigure out how this system worked and then how to manipulate it to edit DNA from any organism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The resulting technology, known as CRISPR-Cas9, is \u201ca set of molecular scissors that can cut and edit the genome of any organism on earth,\u201d said Williams. \u201cThis technology has been used worldwide to not only understand biology, but change biology as we know it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1279\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/190525_Honorary_Degree_Dinner_RR-194.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-136470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/190525_Honorary_Degree_Dinner_RR-194.jpg 1919w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/190525_Honorary_Degree_Dinner_RR-194-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/190525_Honorary_Degree_Dinner_RR-194-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/190525_Honorary_Degree_Dinner_RR-194-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\" \/><figcaption>Jennifer Doudna reacts after Larissa Williams (right) returns to her seat after offering a tribute to the scientist at the traditional honorand dinner on May 25, 2019, the evening before Commencement. (Rene Roy for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, \u201cagricultural crops are being made hardier in their response to drought, mutations are being accurately corrected in laboratory cancer cell lines, and the yield of biofuel from algae has been doubled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the discovery of CRISPR and its \u201cunimaginable utility\u201d has come the \u201crecognition of the ethics of its use, especially in humans. Dr. Doudna has risen to the challenge of being involved in those conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Conferral of Honorary Degree | Jennifer A. Doudna | Commencement 2019 | Bates College\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/35Nme_kQX1c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At Bates today, students and faculty routinely use the CRISPR technology. For Williams, it allows her students to \u201cedit any gene they desire in zebrafish in a matter of hours.\u201d Before CRISPR, \u201ca single gene knockout and the characterization of that effect would take an entire Ph.D. thesis to complete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And this fall, more than 50 students are working with Assistant Professor of Biology and Neuroscience Martin Kruse in two sections of his course \u201cGene Editing in Biology and Neuroscience.&#8221; Kruse reports that his students have been some impressed to know of Doudna\u2019s connection to Bates.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among other topics, Kruse\u2019s students are looking at the evolution of CRISPR techniques and various approaches used to deliver DNA-modifying enzymes into an organism. They\u2019re also discussing ethical implications of genome editing techniques for society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1279\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/190526_Commencement_1395.jpg\" alt=\"Bates College 2019 Commencement  (the one hundred and fifty-third) on the Historic Quad, at which Travis Mills receives an Doctor of Humane Letter. Placing the collar on Mills is the college's mace bearer, Charles Franklin Phillips Professor of EconomicsMichael Murray.\" class=\"wp-image-136454\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/190526_Commencement_1395.jpg 1919w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/190526_Commencement_1395-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/190526_Commencement_1395-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/190526_Commencement_1395-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\" \/><figcaption>With President Clayton Spencer, faculty hosts pose with the year&#8217;s honorands prior to Commencement on May 26, 2019. From left, Spencer, Michael Rocque (sociology), Travis Mills, Larissa Williams (biology), Jennifer Doudna, Analise Hanson Shrout (digital and computational studies) and Megan Smith. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2019, in presenting the citation for Doudna\u2019s honorary degree at Commencement, Dean of the Faculty Malcolm Hill noted that \u201cscarcely a day passes without news coverage\u201d touting the \u201crevolutionary potential\u201d of the CRISPR technology.&nbsp; And \u201cnot a single day passes without our guest thinking deeply about the nature of her work and its possible consequences \u2014 and urging us to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Doudna, Bates&#8217; 2019 Commencement speaker, won the Nobel for co-discovering CRISPR-Cas9 technology, now in use in Bates classrooms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":124920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,217],"tags":[10831,11973,9814],"class_list":["post-136449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-science-technology","tag-commencement","tag-commencement-2019","tag-larissa-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136449"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136473,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136449\/revisions\/136473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}