Rodolphe Barrangou

Rodolphe Barrangou is the Todd R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Scholar in Probiotics Research and a professor of food, bioprocessing and nutrition sciences at North Carolina State University. He was a pioneer in discovering CRISPR as an adaptive bacterial immune system, demonstrating that CRISPR sequences defend bacteria against invaders such as bacteriophages, and for more than a decade he and his team have used CRISPR sequences to vaccinate dairy fermentation bacteria against common phage viruses. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Inventors, and his honors include the 2016 Warren Alpert Prize, the 2016 Canada Gairdner International Award and the 2018 National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences.