Her work showed that tracrRNA is part of the organism‘s immune defences.

This system, known as CRISPR/Cas, disarms viruses by cleaving their DNA.

In 2011, the same year she published this work, Charpentier began a collaboration with Doudna to recreate the bacterium‘s genetic scissors in a test tube. They also worked on simplifying the scissors‘ molecular components so they were easier to use.