Intellia Founders Awarded Distinguished Alpert Prize
BOSTON, MA – March 9, 2016 – Harvard Medical School announced today that the2016 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize will be awarded to five scientists for the novelgene-editing technology, CRISPR/Cas9. Two of Intellia Therapeutics' founders, Jennifer Doudna and Rodolphe Barrangou, are included among the distinguished recipients, and will be recognized for their "remarkable contributions to the understanding of the CRISPR bacterial defense system and the revolutionary discovery that it can be adapted for genome editing."
"We are proud that two of our founders have been awarded such a prestigious prize. Their leading contributions to the CRISPR/Cas9 system discovery and application and the unlocking of its potential for human therapeutic applications is a potential paradigm shift in healthcare," says Nessan Bermingham, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Intellia Therapeutics. "We at Intellia are proud to be associated with Jennifer and Rodolphe and are actively working on developing CRISPR/Cas9-based therapies for severe and life-threatening diseases."
The Warren Alpert Foundation Prize recognizes scientists whose research has led to the prevention, cure or treatment of human diseases or disorders and constitutes a seminal scientific finding that holds great promise for ultimately changing our understanding of, or ability to treat, disease. The three other recipients are Phillipe Horvath, DuPont; Emmanuelle Charpentier, Max Planck Institute for Infectious Biology; and Virginijus Siksnys, Institute of Biotechnology at Vilnius University.
Dr. Doudna also has been recognized for her work on CRISPR/Cas9 with the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and one of TIME magazine's Top 100 Most Influential People in the World.
About Intellia Therapeutics
Intellia Therapeutics is a leading gene-editing company focused on the development of proprietary products utilizing the recently discovered CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Intellia intends to advance its pipeline and potentially develop a new drug class by leveraging its leading scientific and clinical development expertise and its exclusive access to one of the most comprehensive intellectual property platforms available. Intellia is supported by its founding investors Atlas and Novartis, as well a number of public and private sector funds. In 2014, Intellia was named as one of the top 10 biotech start-ups by Nature Biotechnology. In September 2015, Intellia was named a "Fierce 15" biotech company by FierceBiotech. Learn more about Intellia Therapeutics and CRISPR/Cas9 at intelliatx.com; Follow us on Twitter @intelliatweets.
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