Mario R. Capecchi
Mario R. Capecchi was born in Verona, Italy in 1937. He received his B.S. in
chemistry and physics from Antioch College in 1961 and his Ph.D. in biophysics
from Harvard University in 1967. He completed his thesis work under the guidance
of Dr. James D. Watson. From 1967-69 he was a Junior Fellow of the Society of
Fellows at Harvard University. In 1969 he became an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Biochemistry, Harvard School of Medicine and was promoted to Associate
Professor in 1971. In 1973 he joined the faculty at the University of Utah as
a Professor of Biology. Since 1988 Dr. Capecchi has been an investigator of the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute; since 1989, a Professor of Human Genetics at
the University of Utah School of Medicine; and since 1993, Distinguished Professor
of Human Genetics and Biology. He is also co-chairman of the Department of Human
Genetics.
Dr. Capecchi is best known for pioneering the technology of gene targeting
in mouse embryo-derived stem (ES) cells that allows scientists to create mice
with mutations in any desired gene by choosing which gene to mutate and how to
mutate it. This gives the investigator virtually complete freedom in manipulating
the DNA sequences in the genome of living mice, and allows detailed evaluation
of any gene's function during its development or post-developmental phase. Research
interests include the molecular genetic analysis of early mouse development, neural
development in mammals, production of murine models of human genetic diseases,
cancer and factors affecting life expectancy, homologous recombination and programmed
genomic rearrangements in the mouse.
Dr. Capecchi is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1991) and the
European Academy of Sciences (2002). His prestigious awards include the Bristol-Myers
Squibb Award (1992), Gairdner Foundation International Award (1993), General Motors
Corporation's Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize (1994), German Molecular Bioanalytics
Prize, (1996), Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences (1996), Baxter Award for Distinguished
Research in the Biomedical Sciences (1998), Colby Presidential Endowed Chair (1999),
Italian Premio Phoenix-Anni Verdi Award (2000), Spanish Jiménez-Diáz Prize (2001),
Albert Lasker Award (2001), National Medal of Science (2001), John Scott Medal
Award (2002), Massry Prize (2002), Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award
for Cancer Research (2003), Wolf Prize in Medicine (2002/03), March of Dimes Prize
in Developmental Biology (2005), and the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine
(2007) with Oliver Smithies and Martin Evans.
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