Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientist Mario R. Capecchi won the 2007 Nobel Prize for medicine Monday for his research leading to the development of powerful gene-targeting techniques that could result in the treatment or prevention of debilitating diseases in humans.
Another American, University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill scientist Oliver Smithies, shared in the prestigious, $1.54 million prize, as did British scientist Sir Martin J. Evans.
Capecchi is the 12th scientist in the Chevy Chase institute’s 54-year history to win a Nobel Prize. Craig C. Mello, also a scientist with the nonprofit medical research organization, won the award last year.
Capecchi, who is based at the University of Utah, began his gene modification research 20 years ago. It led to the commonly used technique of manipulating individual genes in mice’s embryonic stem cells and reintroducing the cells into embryos to examine the effects on the rodents’ development.
“Many, many diseases are caused by genes which could be from a single gene defect,” Capecchi explained at a news conference. “This allows us to model diseases in a mouse and generate the mouse in different stages and then finally be able to use that same vehicle to function as an agent to develop therapies.”
The hope is that because mice and humans share 99.9 percent of the same genetic content, research on mice will lead to breakthroughs in the treatment and prevention of diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cystic fibrosis in humans.
“Probably almost every human disease is now being modeled inmice,” Capecchi said. “They are being used now to study the disease in greater detail.”
Of the 189 scientists awarded the medicine prize since 1901, 97 have been American or became American citizens after winning the award.
The medicine prize was the first of the six Nobel awards to be announced this year. The others are chemistry, physics, literature, peace and economics.
The annual prizes are handed out Dec. 10, the anniversary of award founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.
