Jennifer Anne Doudna ForMemRS (/ˈdaʊdnə/;[1] born February 19, 1964)[2] is an American biochemist who has pioneered work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics.

In 2012, Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier were the first to propose that CRISPR-Cas9 (enzymes from bacteria that control microbial immunity) could be used for programmable editing of genomes,[6][7] which has been called one of the most significant discoveries in the history of biology.

[8] Since then, Doudna has been a leading figure in what is referred to as the "CRISPR revolution" for her fundamental work and leadership in developing CRISPR-mediated genome editing.

[6][7] When Doudna was in the sixth grade, he gave her a copy of James Watson's 1968 book on the discovery of the structure of DNA, The Double Helix, which was a major inspiration.

"[19] While she attended Hilo High School, Doudna's interest in science was nurtured by her 10th-grade chemistry teacher, Jeanette Wong, whom she has routinely cited as a significant influence in sparking her nascent scientific curiosity.

[6][7] During her freshman year, while taking a course in general chemistry, she questioned her own ability to pursue a career in science, and considered switching her major to French as a sophomore.

[10] After her PhD, she held research fellowships in molecular biology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and in genetics at Harvard Medical School.

[5] From 1991 to 1994, she was Lucille P. Markey Postdoctoral Scholar in Biomedical Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she worked with Thomas Cech.

Early in her scientific career, Doudna worked to uncover the structure and biological function of RNA enzymes or ribozymes.

[10] Doudna also gained access to the synchrotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for her experiments with high powered x-ray diffraction.

[29] She left Genentech after two months and returned to Berkeley with the help of colleague Michael Marletta,[30] canceling all of her obligations to study CRISPR.

[39][40] Their discovery relies on a protein named Cas9 found in the Streptococcus bacterial "CRISPR" immune system that cooperates with guide RNA and works like scissors.

[7] This system was first discovered by Yoshizumi Ishino and colleagues in 1987[41] and later characterized by Francisco Mojica,[42] but Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier showed for the first time that they could use different RNAs to program it to cut and edit different DNAs.

[47] Feng Zhang at the Broad Institute had shown that CRISPR-Cas9 could edit genes in cultured human cells a few months after Doudna and Charpentier published their method.

[56] In 2017, she co-authored A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution,[6] a rare case of the first-person account of a major scientific breakthrough, aimed at the general public.

[57] In addition to the CRISPR breakthrough, Doudna has discovered that the hepatitis C virus utilizes an unusual strategy to synthesize viral proteins.

[61] The business is focused on improving access to bio sensing tests which address "challenges across healthcare, agriculture, environmental monitoring, biodefense, and more.

"[59] Beginning in March 2020, Doudna organized an effort to use CRISPR-based technologies to address the COVID-19 pandemic along with Dave Savage, Robert Tjian, and other colleagues at the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), where they created a testing center.

[62] This center processed over 500,000 patient samples from UC Berkeley students, staff and faculty as well as members of the surrounding community and farm workers in the Salinas area.

[63][64] Mammoth Biosciences announced a peer-reviewed validation of a rapid, CRISPR-based point of need COVID-19 diagnostic which is faster and less expensive than qRT-PCR based tests.

[36] Doudna is also a faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, and an adjunct professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

[77] She joined Sixth Street Partners in 2022 as their chief science advisor, to guide investment decisions related to CRISPR.

[78][79] Doudna's first marriage was in 1988 to a fellow graduate student at Harvard named Tom Griffin, but his interests were more broad and less focused on research than hers and they divorced a few years later.

Doudna and Cate have a son born in 2002 who attends UC Berkeley, studying electrical engineering and computer science.

[106] In 2021, Pope Francis appointed Doudna, and two other women Nobel laureates Donna Strickland and Emmanuelle Charpentier, as members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.