Jennifer Doudna

Jennifer Doudna (born 1964) shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Emmanuelle Charpentier for developing CRISPR-Cas9, the gene-editing system that turned rewriting DNA from science fiction into routine laboratory practice. A biochemist at UC Berkeley, she founded the Innovative Genomics Institute to push CRISPR toward cures for genetic disease.

Machine learning meets the genome

Doudna is an AI user by practice, not just opinion. Her lab has deployed machine-learning tools to surface small gene-editing proteins that had sat undiscovered in public genome databases “because we simply didn’t have the ability to crunch all of the data.” Speaking at UC Berkeley in February 2024, she said she expects AI to have a “huge impact” on genome editing across medicine, agriculture, and climate — accelerating the search for better editing tools and more precise, lower-off-target therapies. She has also appeared at the AI for Science Forum to discuss the fusion of the two fields.

Her optimism is tempered by a scientist’s skepticism of hype. In a June 2026 Bloomberg interview she pushed back on claims that chatbots like ChatGPT would soon get credit for drug discovery — when asked whether AI could earn profits from it, she answered in two words: “Good luck.” AI, in her view, is currently far better at supporting research than leading it, because biology resists the kind of shortcut simulation the AI industry promises. Pro by use, but on her terms.