In this Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020, photo provided by Nobel Prize Outreach, Louise Glck stands beside the medal awarded to her for the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature outside her home in Cambridge, Mass. The pomp and ceremony of the Nobel prize ceremonies were altered this year amid measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. (Daniel Ebersole/ Nobel Prize Outreach via AP)STOCKHOLM – The pomp and ceremony of the Nobel prize ceremonies have been reined in this year amid measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Instead, their achievements will be recognized and rewarded at low-key ceremonies where they live and work in Europe and the United States. A Nobel prize comes with a 10-milion krona ($1.1 million) cash award — to be shared in some cases — diplomas and gold medals.

French scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier and American Jennifer A. Doudna have won the Nobel Prize 2020 in chemistry for developing a method of genome editing likened to 'molecular scissors' that offer the promise of one day curing genetic diseases. “There is enormous power in this genetic tool,” said Claes Gustafsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. In 1911, Marie Curie was the sole recipient of the chemistry award, as was Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin in 1964. ___Read more stories about Nobel Prizes past and present by The Associated Press at https://www.apnews.com/NobelPrizes___This story was first published Oct. 7, 2020. It was updated on Oct. 8, 2020, to correct the aim of clinical trials that are underway with the gene-editing tool CRISPR.

Alter, Charles M. Rice, and Michael Houghton who jointly won the Nobel Prize for medicine on Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus. “For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating hepatitis C virus from the world,” the Nobel Committee said in announcing the prize in Stockholm. Without such treatment, the virus can lead to permanent scarring of the liver, liver cancer or the need for a transplant. Later, Rice developed lab tools and methods that confirmed the hepatitis C virus could cause liver disease in chimpanzees and humans, directly contributing knowledge that led to tests and treatments. Hepatitis C drugs were around $40,000 when they first came out less than a decade ago.