About University of Utah’s Recent Nobel Prize Winner
Today it was announced that Dr. Mario Capecchi, genetic researcher at the University of Utah, was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work related to knock-out genes in mice. Basically this means he found a way to modify a mouse’s genetic makeup slightly to see what impact that change has on the mouse. These methods are now used in labs to better understand the role of genes in biological processes, which can hopefully contribute to human genetics, too.
It was interesting to read about his personal background. He is Italian (as you may have guessed) and lived on the streets for four years as a child trying to stay alive during World War II while his mother was in a Nazi concentration camp. You can read more about him here and here. I think his interesting story illustrates that we can accomplish exciting things regardless of our background or history if we are willing to work hard, stay focused, and be curious.
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