The 2020 Nobel Prizes have highlighted the important role of animal research in life science and medicine.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier, of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, Germany, and Jennifer Doudna, of the University of California, Berkeley, USA, for the development of known as CRISPR/Cas9 - 'genetic scissors' used in gene editing.
Using CRISPR/Cas9, scientists can genetically alter animals to study functions of different genes, their possible role in the progression of disease.and to develop therapies for cancer and other inherited diseases.
Research using chimpanzees was integral to the work of the scientists that won this year's Medicine Prize.
Their discovery of the Hepatitis C virus has made a huge contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis, a major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer.