 I mean who can ever imagine something like this right? It just you know I know I couldn't and I'm just I don't know what to say I'm just I'm so honored and I feel like this represents a recognition of some foundational work that was started at Berkeley on my side and was an international collaboration from the beginning with Emmanuel Charpentier and our students Chris Chilinski and Emmanuel's lab and Martin Yennec in my group so a truly international partnership and you know it really was a curiosity-driven project from the beginning and I want to also mention that for me my introduction to CRISPR was Gillian Banfield at Berkeley who had done some of the early work to uncover this pathway in bacteria. She brought CRISPR to my attention because she thought that it would be an interesting system to study and boy was she right you know and Gill continues to be a wonderful partner and collaborator and we have now have been able to relocate our laboratories into the same building at Berkeley and the IGIB building which is great and I you know it's she's the type of person that represents what's best about Berkeley it's just incredible scholarship you know colleagues who are deeply passionate about their work about their students you know she's teaching a course right now she has to had to convert everything to online and you know I know that's been really hard but she you know she relishes it I mean this is what we what we do anyhow yeah so complete shock and and just humble I humbled by it you know I just for little old me to win the prize I mean it's astounding how'd you find out I was really deeply asleep and I got a call my phone was headed on silent actually my phone was buzzing and for some reason I I woke up and I looked at the phone it was 253 and it was it was Heidi Ledford who is a reporter who I know I've talked to in the past at nature and I so I answered the phone and she said hi Jennifer it's Heidi I'm sorry to you know bother you early but I just you know wanted to get your comments about the Nobel and I said and I thought she was calling to ask me to comment on somebody else winning the Nobel Prize and I you know I was just so I was so deeply asleep and I just you know I was rubbing my eyes and thinking okay I've got to get on my computer and find out who won the Nobel Prize and and I said well who who won it and she said well you won it she said you mean you haven't talked to them yet and I said no and she said oh my gosh I'm the one to tell you and I said yes and and so I said Heidi I feel like I'm sorry I need to go I need to try to get some official news and I looked at my phone and sure enough there were a bunch of messages that I you know from the Sweden and then while I was looking at that my phone rang again and it was Martin Yennec calling from me from Switzerland where he runs a lab now and he was just very very nice he was over the moon he said I'm just so happy and so excited for you and Manuel and you know it's just really wonderful news and of course I'm deeply proud of Martin and his work and you know how indebted I am to him for being in my lab and and doing this wonderful work together so it was great to talk with him at that moment for sure and and then you know things just started to go crazy with phone yeah I think that it really speaks to the fact that I think for many women there's a feeling that no matter what they do their work will never be recognized the way it would be if they were a man and this recognition today I think just you know refutes that in a way and and it just honors the work that you know was started by by a collaboration between two women and you know who set out not to not to win the Nobel Prize but to do really fundamental science that we thought was exciting and important and interesting and we led our our teams to work on it collaboratively and that just means a lot to me and and I think it it means a lot to me thinking back to my own childhood you know growing up as a you know I had been told more than more than a few times that you know girls girls don't do chemistry or girls don't do science and fortunately I ignored that I'm deeply committed to democratizing technology and and certainly CRISPR-Cas so that it's available and accessible to people that need it whether it's for biomedical uses or for agricultural uses or or anything else you know research of course and I I guess if if if this prize changes any of that I guess it it sort of underscores that there's a there's a an importance to to fundamental science that can really change you know fundamental science can change the world I think this is a message that needs to get out there because in many cases we hear the opposite we hear that you know why aren't scientists you know why aren't we curing cancer why aren't we you know working on very focused problems and it's not that that isn't important but the message here is that solutions to problems come from unexpected directions and that's that's really the message of CRISPR you know and it's it's a I think it's a you know it's a really important message to get out to young people especially who are thinking about a career in science and I always encourage students to pursue their their passions because we don't know where the next you know big discoveries and technologies are going to come from and who knew that you know a bacterial immune system would in fact emerge as a world-changing technology for gene editing but here we are you know it's it's it's still a very young technology we're eight years into it and incredibly there already are clinical trials ongoing using it and more and more opportunities to deploy it in in agricultural applications and for other things so I think we'll just continue to see the field accelerating from from here for myself you know I think I think continuing to do very fundamental work on the technology understanding the mechanism of how it works that's always what I've what I've enjoyed doing and what what I like to do plus I think it's critical to ensure that the technology is used safely and effectively under we've seen this over and over that when we understand how molecules work we can you know think properly about how to make sure that they work in in the way one wants especially as a technology so you know they kind of go hand in hand how are you feeling right now I am feeling um a combination of emotions I'm I'm I'm I'm finding myself reflecting back on many events in the past you know just my my upbringing my um you know my sisters I talked to one of them today the other one I haven't talked to yet but um and uh you know who is very proud and um you know my parents have passed away so they're not you know wherever they are they're you know um looking down I'm sure and uh yeah I'm just thinking about my college experience you know being trained by a female biochemist Sharon Panasenko at Pomona College who is truly inspirational to me and um and then just my mentors over the years who have been so supportive because that's that's critical for anybody but you know certainly for me uh helping to build my confidence in myself as a scientist that's that's been key so I'm I'm I'm getting a lot of you know flashbacks going on and I guess the other thing I'm thinking about is um you know I'm just thinking about my son and and sort of people at his age you know it's a it's a challenging time right now for young people and uh I don't know to what extent young people pay that much attention honestly to Nobel Prize announcements um I'm not sure I would have at at 17 but you know I think for maybe for girls especially you know this is kind of a moment to take a step back from the the craziness that's going on and and just to kind of enjoy you know enjoy enjoy great science and and and you know the process of discovery because that's that's why I've always done science I'm just so proud of Berkeley um it's it's wonderful I I you know I'm really honored to to represent such a great university and couldn't have done the work without being here I don't think it would have happened if I wasn't at Berkeley honestly um you know just because of all of the circumstances certainly my interaction with Jillian Banfield uh being the the the start of all of this but then you know having the good fortune to attract wonderful people to the lab and to have so many incredible colleagues I mean we've done so many uh collaborative projects over the years with with people at Berkeley and you know I still I've been at Berkeley 18 years and I still occasionally have this feeling like I'll go to go to a seminar I'll go I'll go to some not so much these days we're not doing it in person but you know just events where I'm looking around the room or the zoom room with with colleagues and I I'll just have this momentary oh my gosh I am part of this you know and these people are all every single one of them is an incredible scholar and I'm so honored to be here I just I you know I still have that really deep you know feeling of being very very proud of of this university and you're also very proud of your students and the students I am they give you a lift yeah oh yeah I mean they do I mean my students are are what you know keep me keep me going you know and and I'm just incredibly incredibly honored to be part of all of this