The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded jointly to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing.”

FACTS AND FIGURES

• In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) established this Prize in memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize.
• The most common research field for Nobel Laureates in chemistry is   biochemistry. It is the field for 50 Nobel Laureates.
• Frederick Sanger has been awarded twice.
• The Curies were the most successful “Nobel Prize family”. The husband-and-wife partnership of Marie Curie and Pierre Curie were awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Marie Curie herself was awarded the Nobel Prize a second time, receiving the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Marie and Pierre Curie’s eldest daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with her husband, Frédéric Joliot. The younger daughter, Ève Curie, worked for the UNICEF and was married to Henry R. Labouisse. He accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of UNICEF in 1965.     LEARNING FORM HOME/WITHOUT CLASSES/BASICS                       What is a genome? Your genome is the instructions for making and maintaining you. It is written in a chemical code called DNA. All living things have a genome; plants, bacteria, viruses and animals. Your genome is all 3.2 billion letters of your DNA. It contains around 20,000 genes.                 Genes are the instructions for making the proteins our bodies are built of – from the keratin in hair and fingernails to the antibody proteins that fight infection. What is DNA? DNA (deoxyribose nucleic acid) is a long molecule. It has a twisted, double helix shape. DNA is made up of four different chemicals, or bases. These are represented by the letters A, T, C and G. The bases are attached to two phosphate backbones. The bases are paired together; A with T, G with C. The two backbones twist around each other to give the characteristic double helix. What is genome sequencing? Sequencing is a technique that is used to ‘read’ DNA. It finds the order of the letters of DNA (A, T, C and G), one by one. Sequencing a human genome means finding the sequence of someone’s unique 3 billion letters of DNA. Why sequence a genome? Learning more about genomes can help us to identify the cause of genetic diseases. Some rare diseases are caused by as little as a single change (variant), like a spelling mistake, in someone’s DNA. Looking at the genome of a person affected by a rare disease can help find which DNA changes might be causing the problem. In cancer, the tumour cells have developed a different genome to the healthy cells. Comparing the normal and cancer genomes may give clues about ways to treat the cancer For some patients, knowing more about their genome may mean that a particular treatment can be recommended. When the genome sequences of patients with the same condition are compared, it is possible to see patterns. These patterns can be put together with health information. Once this is done we may be able to link particular patterns with whether people are likely to become ill and, if so, how severe their illness is likely to be.