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Speaker Profile

Jennifer Doudna

Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair and Professor at the University of California, Berkeley

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VIRTUAL SESSION ONLY

Jennifer Doudna is a biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley. Her groundbreaking development of CRISPR/Cas9 — a genome-engineering technology that allows researchers to edit DNA — with collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier earned the two the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and forever changed the course of human and agricultural genomics research. She is also the founder and the President of the Innovative Genomics Institute, the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair in Biomedical and Health Sciences, and a member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Gladstone Institutes, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. She is a leader in the global public debate on the responsible use of CRISPR, and has co-founded and serves on the advisory panel of several companies that use the technology in unique ways. Doudna is the co-author of A Crack in Creation, a personal account of her research and the societal and ethical implications of gene editing.

 

Speaker Links

Scheduled Appearances

CRISPR and the Future of Genetic Engineering

Crosscut Festival 2023
Wed May 3, 2023 | 2:00pm

Jennifer Doudna, co-founder of the CRISPR gene-editing tool that offers incredible opportunities to treat or cure diseases, develop crops resistant to pests and diseases, and livestock more efficient at producing meat and milk. There are also risks, including the concern that it could lead to a new class of "designer babies," among many ethical concerns. Where do we go from here?

WATCH SESSION

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Featuring: Jennifer Doudna, Carl Zimmer

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About the Festival

The Cascade PBS Ideas Festival brings together journalists, newsmakers, and innovators from around the country to talk about the issues that are animating our cultural conversations. The festival includes live recordings of television and podcasts from The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Pushkin, NPR and PBS; as well as community meetups, meet-and-greets, food trucks, DJs, and more.

The Cascade PBS Ideas Festival will take place May 4, 2024, at the Amazon Meeting Center, 2031 Seventh Ave. Seattle, WA 98121.

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