Nobel Prize In Medicine To Gene Engineers

Two Americans, U.K. Scientist Recognized For Manipulation Of Mouse Genes

(AP)  U.S. citizens Mario R. Capecchi and Oliver Smithies and Sir Martin J. Evans of Britain won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for groundbreaking discoveries that led to a 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.

Capecchi, 70, who was born in Italy, is at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Smithies, 82, born in Britain, is at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Evans, 66, works at Cardiff University in Wales.

They 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, the Nobel committee said. That's about half the genes the rodents have.

"Gene targeting has pervaded all fields of biomedicine. Its impact on the understanding of gene function and its benefits to mankind will continue to increase over many years to come," the award citation said.

In a telephone interview from Salt Lake City, Capecchi called the award "a fantastic surprise."

He said he was deep asleep when he got the phone call from the Nobel committee at 3 a.m. local time. "He sounded very serious," Capecchi said, "so the first reaction was, `This must be real.'"

Smithies told The Associated Press getting award was "very gratifying." After working on the research for more than 20 years, he said it's "rather enjoyable being recognized at this level."

Smithies said he hopes winning the prize will make it easier to secure funding for other work.

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.

"Humans and mice, in terms of gene content, are 99.9 percent the same," Capecchi told the Associated Press. "So whatever we learn in the mouse is going to be directly applicable to the human.

"Right now we are modeling sarcomas, very aggressive cancers which affect small children and adults, [for which] there are no therapies available. So by modeling them in the mouse, we can study the disease in much greater detail than is possible in humans, and then turn it around and utilize that mouse also to develop new therapies for that disease."

The medicine prize was the first of the six prestigious awards to be announced this year. The others are chemistry, physics, literature, peace and economics.

The prizes are handed out every year on Dec. 10, the anniversary of award founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.

Last year, the Nobel Prize in medicine went to Americans Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for discovering RNA interference, a process that can silence specific genes.

For more visit the Nobel Prize Web site at nobelprize.org.

By Associated Press Writers Karl Ritter And Matt Moore

[juwboy]

gwirionedd:

YAAAAAWWWWWNNNNN!!!!!

[gwirionedd]

juwboy:
Wel nawr, what fun to demonstrate your Welsh pride with a crude, barroom Welsh insult towards the accursed English!

Perhaps you can use your linguistic skills to update the web site of Sir Martin J. Evans at Cardiff University.

At present, the Cymraeg link leads to:

Nid yw''r URL y gofynnoch chi amdano ar gael eto ar fersiwn Gymraeg y safle hwn.
Fodd bynnag, mae URL cyfatebol ar gael ar y safle yn Saesneg a byddwch chi''n mynd i''r fan honno yn awtomatig ymhen ychydig eiliadau.

HINT:

The URL that you have requested doesn''t yet exist on the welsh version of this site.However a corresponding URL does exist on the site in English and you will be taken there automatically in a few seconds.

Sorry about the lack of a capital letter for welsh --- perhaps you can also correct the English while you are at it!

[rational_1]

It helped that they had the facilities of three fine Schools at their disposal. Wonder how far they could have gone entirely on their own?
Posted by ToolMangler at 03:56 PM : Oct 08, 2007

Nowhere - and they''d be the first to admit it. These days the scientist running the lab may get the first glimmerings of the idea that eventually wins the Nobel Prize, and while that''s obviously crucial, next comes the hard work of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, technicians and fellow scientists. No man is an island as they say, and that is especially true of science in this day and age. There''s also a fair bit of serendipity involved.

[toolmangler-2009]

Posted by george2221 at 08:12 AM : Oct 08, 2007


It helped that they had the facilities of three fine Schools at their disposal. Wonder how far they could have gone entirely on their own?

Smithies, 82, born in Britain, is at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Right in my back yard (kinda) ;)

[irishthree]

If we were to go back into old news about open heart surgery and body organ transplants we would see the same BS being said way back then. These people in charge just use an issue to controll elections and we shouldnt let them have any say so at all about issues like this. Thank God we fought off the old narrow minded back then we can now and the future, lets hope !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rational_1]

U S A! U S A!
Posted by Extremophil at 12:43 PM : Oct 08, 2007


Immigration, immigration - Smithies was born in Britain and Capecchi was born in Italy. I''m a scientist also born in Europe (who just became a U.S. citizen), so I couldn''t resist the correction.

Wonderful work these guys did and phenomenally influential. Really well deserved and a home run selection by the Nobel committee!

[extremophil]

U S A! U S A!

[juwboy]

chipsgrl:

That was my first thought on reading the report, too.

Twll dyn bob sais!

[chipsgrl]

Just a small correction to this story. Cardiff University is in Wales, not England. Wales, England and Scotland are separate nations of Great Britain. England and Britain are not synonyms.

[hungry1968]

"The trio has been awarded the prize for a series of "groundbreaking discoveries concerning embryonic stem cells and DNA recombination in mammals." This has led to a powerful technology commonly known as gene targeting in mice.

In its citation, the award committee said that the use of gene targeting has shed light on embryonic development, aging and disease."




This is another Bush bomb shell. His staunch opposition to embryonic stem cell research has him thinking that he''s on some sort of "moral pedestal" when in fact, it''s part of the problem. Then as further proof, 3 scientists were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for doing something that Bush opposes!!!