NEWS

Smithies to be awarded Wolf Prize for research

By DAVID WILLIAMSON
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Dr. Oliver Smithies, Excellence professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, has been selected to share in the 2002-2003 Wolf Prize in Medicine.

Smithies was selected because of his "contribution to the development of gene targeting, enabling elucidation of gene function in mice," according to Yaron Gruder, director general of the Wolf Foundation, based in Israel. The UNC professor and two U.S. colleagues created techniques "for introducing and modifying individual genes with mouse eggs and embryos," the prize jury wrote.

"Since the mouse genome is highly similar to that of humans, the laureates’ work has provided powerful tools for investigating human biology and its mis-regulation in human diseases," they said. "These methods have enabled the development of models for a wide variety of diseases including hypertension, degenerative neurological diseases and cancer."

Moshe Katsav, president of Israel, will present the award May 11 during a special ceremony at the Chagall Hall of the Knesset Building in Jerusalem. Smithies will share the award and the $100,000 prize with Drs. Ralph L. Brinster of the University of Pennsylvania and Mario R. Capecchi of the University of Utah.

Working independently, Smithies and Capecchi "developed techniques for the targeted mutation of chosen genes in mammalian cells," the jury wrote. "The technology they invented offers a means for creating strains of mice with mutations in virtually any gene. Mutant mouse models have since been generated by countless groups worldwide in the study of gene functions."

Brinster was cited for developing "procedures to manipulate mouse ova and embryos, which have enabled transgenesis and its applications in mice," the panel said. "The first scientist to microinject fertilized eggs (with RNA), Brinster was at the forefront of applying these methods to generate transgenic mice."

Born in Yorkshire, England, Smithies earned his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees at Oxford University and served on the faculties of the universities of Toronto and Wisconsin before joining UNC in 1988. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1971.

Other honors include the William Allen Memorial Award from the American Society of Human Genetics in 1964, the Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award in 1984, the Gairdner Foundation National Award in 1990 and 1993, the Alfred P. Sloan Award of the General Motors Foundation in 1994 for contributions to cancer research, the American Heart Association’s Ciba Award for Hypertension Research in 1996 and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award in 1997.

Two of Smithies’ most recent honors were the 2001 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, often called "America’s Nobel," and the 2002 Massry Award.

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Note: Smithies can be reached at (919) 966-6913 or oliver.smithies@pathology.unc.edu

Media Contact: David Williamson, (919) 962-8596