Doudna was announced as a recipient of the 2023 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for enabling CRISPR-based therapies.
On March 29, 2023, the Lasker Foundation announced Jennifer Doudna as one of the recipients of the 2023 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, recognizing work that enabled the development of CRISPR-based gene-editing therapies for human disease.
This award distinguished itself from her earlier 2018 Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award by specifically honoring the clinical translation of CRISPR technology — the journey from Doudna's foundational 2012 biochemical discovery to real-world therapeutic applications, most notably the FDA-approved gene therapy Casgevy for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia, developed using CRISPR-Cas9 technology.
The Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award specifically honors discoveries that have transformed the clinical treatment of patients, marking an important evolution in recognition of Doudna's work: from foundational biochemistry to demonstrable, life-changing patient outcomes achieved within just over a decade of the initial CRISPR-Cas9 discovery — an extraordinarily rapid translation timeline in the history of biomedical science.
The announcement highlighted how Doudna's research had moved beyond laboratory and agricultural applications to directly address serious genetic diseases, fulfilling one of the most anticipated promises of the CRISPR revolution: curative treatments for previously intractable inherited conditions.