Illumina board director Frances Arnold shares Nobel Prize in chemistry

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Illumina board director Frances Arnold shares Nobel Prize in chemistry

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

Frances Arnold, a Caltech professor who serves on the board of directors of Illumina, the influential San Diego life sciences company, has been chosen to share this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Arnold, who joined the Illumina board in 2016, is sharing the prize with American George P. Smith and Briton Sir Gregory P. Winter. Collectively, they exploited Darwinian evolution to improve the efficiency of molecules used in designing drugs and developing biofuels.

Illumina CEO Francis deSouza praised Arnold’s work in an email to the Union-Tribune.

“Frances’ pioneering work on directed evolution – a bioengineering method for creating new and better enzymes in the lab – is helping accelerate research and innovation that we believe will change the world,” deSouza said.

“We are grateful for the perspective and passion that Frances brings to her role on the Illumina Board of Directors,” he said.

“When you are working to solve mankind’s largest problems — cancer, hunger, neurological diseases, etc. — it helps to work with the world’s smartest people. Frances continues to inspire us with her curiosity, intelligence and tenacity and we congratulate her on this well-deserved honor.”

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