Emmanuelle Charpentier held the 10^th CeMM Landsteiner Lecture on May 6, 2016, in the festive hall of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, which was filled up to the last place. Her magnificent talk on the CRISPR technology delighted scientists and lay audience alike and was also broadcasted via live stream. 

"A fast and easy tool was needed - and that's was CRISPR brought. The CRISPR-Cas technology allows precise gene surgery in any cell and organism" – with those almost casual sounding phrases, Emmanuelle Charpentier summed up her discovery which has revolutionized biomedical research within only a few years and will have a fundamental impact on the future of medicine. In front of some four hundred people, she explained the molecular basis of this ingenious genetic tool and the story of its development.

Welcomed by Anton Zeilinger, President of the Academy, and introduced by Giulio Superti-Furga, CeMM Director and initiator of the Landsteiner Lecture Series, Emmanuelle Charpentier’s talk was an extraordinary event in the baroque hall of the Academy. With the musical framework provided by the ensemble “Karat-Apart” and the subsequent cocktail reception, the 10^th CeMM Landsteiner Lecture was in every aspect a memorable and joyful jubilee. 

We would like to thank Emmanuelle Charpentier for coming to Vienna to give this wonderful lecture, and also for taking her time to spend a day at CeMM. Her energetic personality, as well as her unswerving dedication to science left an unforgettable and remaining impression to all of us. Thank You Manue!

About the CeMM Landsteiner Lecture: Once a year, usually at the beginning of May, CeMM is organizing its Karl Landsteiner Lecture for the scientific community and an interested lay audience. It is named after the Viennese discoverer of the blood groups and is given by a prominent scientist whose molecular research has a strong impact on medicine. The lecture is held in the stunning 18th century frescoed festive hall of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (where Haydn and Beethoven conducted premieres of their work) and is accompanied by a small ceremony, music and a cocktail. Former CeMM Landsteiner lecturer: 2007 John Kuriyan, University of California; 2008 Kari Stefánsson, deCODE Genetics; 2009 Vishva Dixit, Genentech Inc.; 2010 Helen Hobbs, University of Texas; 2011 George Daley, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Boston; 2012 Ruslan Medzhitov, Yale University; 2013 Hans Clevers, Hubrecht Institute Utrecht; 2014 David Sabatini, MIT; 2015 Laurie H. Glimcher, Weill Cornell Medical College NY; 2016 Emmanuelle Charpentier, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology Berlin;