Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., to be Named Recipient of CLSA’s Life Sciences Leadership Award at 2019 Pantheon DiNA™ Awards

SAN FRANCISCO & SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), the trade association representing California’s life sciences sector, has announced the winner of its 2019 Life Sciences Leadership Award, a prestigious award to be presented at CLSA’s 2019 Pantheon DiNA^™ Program, which honors California’s most innovative and dedicated life sciences leaders for their ongoing contributions to California’s life sciences sector.

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Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, to be Named Recipient of California Life Sciences Association’s (CLSA) Life Sciences Leadership Award at 2019 Pantheon DiNA Awards (Photo: Business Wire)

The award will be presented to Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, as part of CLSA’s 2019 Pantheon DiNA^™ Awards ceremony on Nov. 15 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco. Now in its 16th year, the CLSA Pantheon Award is a long-standing program that brings together over 500 industry pioneers annually – including innovators, investors and educators – to recognize excellence in the California life sciences community, a sector which employs more than 311,000 Californians at over 3,600 life sciences companies.

“The Life Sciences Leadership Award recognizes key individuals who work relentlessly to drive innovation and collaboration within California’s life sciences sector. It’s thanks to visionary leaders like Dr. Jennifer Doudna, that California’s life sciences industry continues to blossom and evolve, and we’re pleased to honor her for enormous contributions to our growing innovation ecosystem,” said Mike Guerra, President and CEO, California Life Sciences Association (CLSA). “Dr. Doudna is an internationally renowned molecular and cell biologist who has made a lasting mark on human health and our life sciences sector through her leadership in CRISPR genetic engineering technology, ethics in gene editing, and much more. Her research has opened the floodgates of possibility for human and non-human applications of gene editing to help researchers fight against deadly diseases. We look forward to honoring Dr. Doudna as our 2019 Life Sciences Leadership Awardee, along with all our award winners, at CLSA’s 2019 Pantheon DiNATM Ceremony on Nov. 15 in San Francisco.”

“I am honored to accept the Life Sciences Leadership Award recognizing the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology,” said Dr. Jennifer Doudna. “On behalf of my students, colleagues, and collaborators, I thank the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA) and appreciate the opportunity to highlight the fundamental scientific work across California and the need for our society to use CRISPR technology responsibly.”

About Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

As an internationally renowned professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at U.C. Berkeley, Dr. Jennifer A. Doudna and her colleagues rocked the research world in 2012 by describing a simple way of editing the DNA of any organism using an RNA-guided protein found in bacteria. This technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, has opened the floodgates of possibility for human and non-human applications of gene editing, including assisting researchers in the fight against HIV, sickle cell disease and muscular dystrophy. Doudna is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes, and the Executive Director of the Innovative Genomics Institute. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Doudna is also a Foreign Member of the Royal Society and has received numerous other honors including the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Japan Prize, and the Kavli Prize. View full biography.

To attend or learn more about CLSA’s 2019 Pantheon Awards, visit www.clsapantheon.org. Follow #CLSAPantheon for updates.

Members of the media/press may obtain complementary registration by RSVP’ing to Will Zasadny (wzasadny@califesciences.org). To learn more about CLSA and its offerings, please visit: www.califesciences.org.

More about CLSA’s Pantheon DiNA™ Awards:

Each year the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), recognizes and honors excellence as it brings together California’s Life Sciences industry for one night at our Annual Pantheon DiNA^™ Awards Ceremony. This evening serves as a celebration of the contributions and achievements of California’s leading life sciences innovators, a moment in time to pause and reflect on the industry’s legacy. You are cordially invited to join us on Friday, November 15, 2019 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco as we celebrate and recognize the impact that California’s therapeutic, diagnostic, medical device, and industrial biotechnology companies are making around the globe.

• Learn More about the California life sciences sector
• View CLSA’s Legislative Action Center
• Watch CLSA’s Faces of California Biomedical Innovation Web Series
• View Upcoming CLSA events
• Meet the CLSA Board of Directors

About California Life Sciences Association (CLSA)

California Life Sciences Association (CLSA) is the state’s largest and most influential life sciences advocacy and business leadership organization. With offices in Sacramento, San Diego, South San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington DC, CLSA works closely with industry, government, academia and others to shape public policy, improve access to innovative technologies and grow California’s life sciences economy. CLSA serves biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics companies, research universities and institutes, investors and service providers throughout the Golden State. CLSA was founded in 2015 when the Bay Area Bioscience Association (BayBio) and the California Healthcare Institute (CHI) merged. Visit CLSA at www.califesciences.org, and follow us on Twitter @CALifeSciences, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

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