2007 Nobel Prize
in Medicine
Two American
scientists and a Briton won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for
groundbreaking discoveries that led to a powerful technique for manipulating
mouse genes.
The widely used
process has helped scientists use mice to study heart disease, diabetes,
cancer, cystic fibrosis and other diseases.
The prize is shared
by Mario R. Capecchi, 70, of the University of Utah
in Salt Lake City; Oliver Smithies, 82, a native of Britain now at University
of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Sir Martin J. Evans, 66, of Cardiff
University in Wales.
The three
scientists were honored for a technique called gene targeting, which lets
scientists inactivate or modify particular genes in mice. That in turn lets
them study how those genes affect health and disease.
To use this
technique, researchers introduce a genetic change into mouse embryonic stem
cells. These cells are then injected into mouse embryos. The mice born from
these embryos are bred with others, to produce offspring with altered genes.
The first mice with
genes manipulated in this way were announced in 1989. More than 10,000
different genes in mice have been studied with the technique. That's about half the genes the rodents have.
Although gene
targeting uses embryonic stem cells from mice, it is different from how stem
cells would be used to treat disease in humans. In people, stem cells would be
prodded to become replacement tissue like nerve cells for transplant into
patients.
Capecchi's work has uncovered the roles of genes involved in
organ development in mammals, the committee said. Evans has developed strains
of gene-altered mice to study cystic fibrosis, and Smithies has created strains
to study such conditions as high blood pressure and heart disease.
About Capecchi:
The Nobel is a
particularly striking achievement for Capecchi, a
native of
Capecchi lived on the streets for more than four years,
fending for himself by begging and stealing, until reuniting with his mother at
age 9. They soon moved to the
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