SWEDEN/FILE: The Nobel medicine prize is awarded to the researchers responsible for manipulating mice stem cells to replicate human disease

The Nobel medicine prize is awarded to the researchers responsible for manipulating mice stem cells to replicate human disease. The three researchers who pioneered the creation of "designer mice" to track the role of different genes in human development and disease have won the 2007 Nobel medicine prize, Sweden's Karolinska Institute said on Monday (October 8). The prestigious 10 million Swedish crown (1.54 million U.S. dollars) prize recognized Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies for helping discover "the roles of numerous genes in embryonic development, adult physiology, ageing and disease". Italian-born Capecchi is a U.S. citizen, as is Smithies. Both Evans, who was knighted for his contributions to science, and Smithies are British-born. The prize awarders said the discoveries made by the three have led to a new branch of medicine known as gene targeting -- turning mice genes on and off to determine their effect on diseases and physiological development. Capecchi and Smithies' research showed genes can be targeted, modified and repaired if defective. Evans offered the means for achieving this by isolating embryonic stem cells in mice, which give rise to all the cells in the body. Their work led to breakthrough revelations about the development of organs, the causes of some human birth defects along with models for diseases such as cystic fibrosis, hypertension and atherosclerosis. "They provide the means by which we can determine which genes are really important in determining human health and human disease and also, they provide methodology that can be used in order to develop new therapies, for example in all the drug industry," chairman of the Nobel committee Björn Fredholm said. As is customary, the committee secretary called the winners before the news conference to give them the news. This year Hans Jörnvall had only minor problems getting hold of them. "Yes, we were lucky this year. We found all three before the press conference and they were all very happy. It was a little bit difficult to find two of them, but we got through," he said. Medicine is traditionally the first of the Nobels handed out each year. The prizes for achievement in science, literature and peace bearing the name of Alfred Nobel were first awarded in 1901 according to the will of the Swedish dynamite millionaire. The Nobel Laureate for physics will be revealed on Tuesday (October 9), followed by that for chemistry on Wednesday (October 10), literature on Thursday (October 11) and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday (October 12) in Oslo. Capecchi, born in Verona in 1937, received his PhD in 1967 from Harvard. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics and Biology at the University of Utah in the United States. Evans, born in 1941, received a PhD in anatomy and embryology in 1969 from University College, London. He is director of the School of Biosciences and Professor of Mammalian Genetics at Cardiff University in Britain. Smithies, born in 1925, received his doctorate in biochemistry in 1951 from Oxford. He is the Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of North Carolina in the United States.

ITN Source | October 8, 2007

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