Biochemist, Nobel Prize winner
About The Leader
About The Leader
Dr. Jennifer Doudna developed a revolutionary way to edit DNA called CRISPR-Cas9. It uses an RNA-guided protein from bacteria that can be applied to any organism. This technology can be instrumental in the treatment of many genetic diseases.
Jennifer Anne Doudna born February 19, 1964) is an American biochemist who has done pioneering work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics.
She received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Emmanuelle Charpentier "for the development of a method for genome editing."
In 2012, Doudna and Charpentier were the first to propose that CRISPR-Cas9 (enzymes from bacteria that control microbial immunity) could be used for programmable editing of genomes, which has been called one of the most significant discoveries in the history of biology.
Since then, Doudna has been a leading figure in what is referred to as the "CRISPR revolution" for her foundational work and leadership in developing CRISPR-mediated genome editing.
Her Purpose
Advance scientific innovation and collaboration to solve advanced and seemingly intractable societal problems.
"Throughout [the first pandemic year], I was buoyed by the mission-driven, collaborative spirit of our consortium of academia, industry, and community. My hope as we climb out of this pandemic is that we build on this cooperation, increase funding for the type of fundamental science that made our work possible, and take a science-first leadership approach to stay ahead of future threats and safeguard our health."
Case for Change
Case for Change
Take a science-first leadership approach to stay ahead of future threats and safeguard our health as we did during the pandemic year.
Growth Gap
Growth Gap
Find cures for incurable diseases by harnessing and developing autoimmune systems that fight all types of viruses, leveraging the science of genomics.
Investment Portfolio
Investment Portfolio
Find collaborative opportunities between industry experts, academics, and other communities to drive multiple efforts in parallel across the globe to solve such daunting challenges impacting many people.
Her Leadership Qualities
Her Leadership Qualities
Dr. Jennifer Doudna has been overcoming personal and societal barriers to drive new innovations through powerful collaborations and solve some of the greatest challenges for mankind.
Smashing Barriers
Smashing Barriers
Dr. Doudna has overcome major barriers and challenges that came her way throughout her life. From being advised not to choose molecular science to the unethical use of her inventive technology, she has been able to promote fruitful and collaboration by providing leadership on all fronts.
Key Actions
Key Actions
As a child, Dr. Doudna was always curious to explore the unknown. When in high school years she voiced her intention to pursue a career in science, her high school counselor told her that "girls don't do science." Luckily for us, she didn't listen to that unhelpful input.
Leadership Behaviors
Leadership Behaviors
Curiosity-driven intellect
Challenging the status quo
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
Dr. Doudna discoverd early in her life that she was capable of achieving great things if she applied focus and energy to achieveing her goals.
Even today she is using the same leadership qualities to create new breakthroughs. During first year of the pandemic, she quickly put together a team of experts at her Innovative Genomics Institute to develop a diagnostic test to detect SARS COV-2 virus with an automatic RNA extraction technology to achieve faster results.
Being Curious
Being Curious
Dr. Doudna was always curious as a child and was fascinated about exploring new questions, from the origins of life on earth to figuring out experiments can to discover the structure of a molecule. She found her calling in high school after hearing a lecture by a scientist about her research into how normal cells became cancerous.
Key Actions
Key Actions
Dr. Doudna earned her doctoral degree by engineering a catalytic RNA that could self-replicate, adding evidence to that theory. But her inability to visualize this catalytic RNA hindered her work.
Leadership Behaviors
Leadership Behaviors
Never give up
Connect the dots to find new innovative solutions
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
There are always new ways to make your vision into reality. You need to connect the dots and experiment and iterate to find new innovative techniques.
While she was conducting postdoctoral research, she embarked on an experiment of using X-ray diffraction at a way to figure out the atomic structure of RNA in three dimensions. Despite not having training in this approach, her experiment succeeded. Since that time, she has become a top specialist in studies of the structure and biochemistry of RNA.
Collaborate To Win
Collaborate To Win
Dr. Doudna has participated in mulltiple collaboration with other scientists as well as other academic and industry experts to advance her research and findings. Her most powerful and successful collaboration was with Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, a French microbiologist at Umea University in Sweden. The two researchers demonstrated this using DNA in a test tube. While there were other genome editing techniques, they found that Crispr-Cas9 was much simpler. They both eventually went on to win the Noble Prize in Chemistry for this invention.
Key Actions
Key Actions
With the assistance of two postdoctoral assistants, Doudna and Charpentier determined how to cut DNA very precisely using two pieces of RNA combined with a protein called Cas9. In addition, they discovered that these two pieces of RNA could still function even though they had been combined into one.
Leadership Behaviors
Leadership Behaviors
Leverage expertise of others to create new win-win value propositions
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
Powerful Leaders often need to look beyond there own capabilities to find the missing pieces of a puzzle.
In a eureka moment, the scientists realized that a bacterial cellular defense system might be used to edit genomes, not just kill viruses.
A specific sequence of guide RNA could be made to attach to a spot virtually anywhere on the genome, and the Cas9 protein would cleave the DNA at that spot. Then pieces of the DNA could be deleted or added, just as a film editor might cut a film and splice in new frames.
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