Virginijus Siksnys studied chemistry at Vilnius University and obtained his Ph.D from Moscow State University before returning to Vilnius where he moved through different research ranks at the Institute of Applied Enzymology/Institute of Biotechnology. Since 2002 he holds the position of Professor of Vilnius University and serves as Chief scientist at the Institute of Biotechnology. Dr. Siksnys has made a major and sustained contribution to the understanding of the structure and function of restriction enzymes. His research on the CRISPR-Cas has had a major impact on the field. His studies of the Cas9 protein paved the way for development of novel tools for genome editing applications. He is a member of Lithuania Academy of Sciences, Norwegian Academy of Sciences and letters, EMBO and FEMS. His work has been recently recognized with several awards and prizes.