Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna, PhD gives DF/HCC 2025 David M. Livingston Memorial Lecture to Packed House

Jennifer Doudna, PhD delivered the 2025 David M. Livingston Memorial Lecture on April 23 to an at-capacity crowd in the Jimmy Fund Auditorium, holding the attention of those in the room and of overflow viewers in Dana 1620 and beyond. Few have overfilled the auditorium since a memorable visit to DFCI by Dr. James Watson in 2012. Coincidentally, Dr. Watson authored the 1968 book on the discovery of the structure of DNA, The Double Helix, which Dr. Doudna received as a gift from her father in 6th grade and credits as a major source of inspiration on her CRISPR-Cas-9 journey. 

Dr. Doudna won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 alongside Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, whose labs collaborated to create the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool in 2012. Among those in the audience for Dr. Doudna’s talk were Dr. Laurie Glimcher, DF/HCC’s director and Dana-Farber's president from 2016-2024, Emily Livingston, beloved wife of Dr. Livingston, 2024 Nobel Laureate Gary Ruvkun, PhD (MGH), and many faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from DF/HCC institutions. 

Despite a tight schedule of meetings with local faculty, Dr. Doudna, who was wearing a crimson Harvard t-shirt under her blazer, lingered in the auditorium to indulge starstruck graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with book signings, selfies, and words of wisdom and encouragement. This small gesture to pay it forward to the next generation is one that likely would have pleased the event’s namesake and is a fitting tribute to David Livingston’s legacy of mentorship.