March of Dimes Awards $250,000 Prize to Pioneers in Genetic Research

University of Utah geneticist Mario Capecchi has won numerous prizes for developing “gene targeting,” a method of knocking a gene out of action in mice to determine what goes wrong and thereby identify the gene’s normal function.

Today, May 9, 2005, the March of Dimes announced it has awarded its Prize in Developmental Biology to Capecchi and University of North Carolina researcher Oliver Smithies for their roles in developing gene targeting.

The March of Dimes news release and biographical sketches are below.

– – –

MARCH OF DIMES BIRTH DEFECTS FOUNDATION

National Office
1275 Mamaroneck Avenue
White Plains, NY 10605

News Release

March of Dimes contacts:
— Michele Kling, (914) 997-4613
— Todd P. Dezen, (914) 997-4608
— Kristi Hellmuth, (703) 339-0098

MARCH OF DIMES AWARDS $250,000 PRIZE TO PIONEERS IN GENETIC RESEARCH

Development of Powerful DNA Technology Allows
Creation of Models of Human Disease

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., May 9, 2005 — For developing an indispensable tool for today’s genetic disease research, two scientists have been named co-recipients of this year’s March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology, to be awarded May 16 in Washington, DC.

Mario R. Capecchi, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Co-Chairman of the Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah School of Medicine, and Oliver Smithies, D.Phil., Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, are being honored for developing gene targeting — the ability to alter particular genes in cultured cells and transfer the targeted genes to laboratory mice. Gene targeting allows researchers to design and produce “knockout” lab mice to study how the disabled gene works. The same technology also makes it possible to change the function of a gene (“knock in”) or restore the function of a disabled gene. Because humans share the vast majority of their genes with mice, gene-targeted mice are used to reproduce diseases that occur in humans.

The March of Dimes Prize is a cash award of $250,000 and a silver medal in the design of the Roosevelt dime, in honor of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who founded the March of Dimes.

“Before gene targeting, researchers could not pinpoint how a specific gene worked, which was very frustrating,” said Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president of the March of Dimes. “Dr. Capecchi and Dr. Smithies, working independently, made a technological breakthrough that completely revolutionized biomedical research and our ability to study human disease and development. We’re reaping the benefits every day with advances in genetic medicine.”

Gene targeting is now practiced routinely by thousands of scientists all over the world, enabling them to address the most complex and critical biological problems, including the causes and treatment of birth defects and many other disorders, such as cancer, diabetes, and atherosclerosis.

The March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology has been awarded annually since 1996 to investigators whose research has profoundly advanced the science that underlies the understanding of birth defects. The March of Dimes created the Prize as a tribute to Dr. Jonas Salk shortly before his death in 1995.

The March of Dimes Prize will be awarded to Dr. Capecchi and Dr. Smithies at a black tie dinner and ceremony on May 16 at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History here. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, granddaughter of President Roosevelt and a member of the March of Dimes National Board of Trustees, will host the ceremony.

Dr. Capecchi and Dr. Smithies also will deliver the tenth annual March of Dimes Prize Lectures on May 16 at the Washington Convention Center during the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies.

The March of Dimes is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects and infant mortality. Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes funds programs of research, community services, education, and advocacy to save babies and in 2003 launched a five-year campaign to address the increasing rate of premature birth. For more information, visit the March of Dimes Web site at marchofdimes.com or its Spanish language Web site at nacersano.org.

—

2005 MARCH OF DIMES PRIZE IN DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

MARIO R. CAPECCHI, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor and Co-Chairman
Department of Human Genetics
University of Utah School of Medicine

Mario R. Capecchi was born in Verona, Italy, in 1937 and emigrated to the United States as a child. He told the story of his early life to Nature, which published his account in “From Rags to Research” in the July 1, 2004 issue.

He received his B.S. degree in chemistry and physics from Antioch College, Ohio, and his Ph.D. degree in biophysics from Harvard University. His thesis work was done under the guidance of Dr. James D. Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA.

While at Harvard, Dr. Capecchi was an enormously productive researcher, making discoveries on molecular mechanisms underlying protein synthesis. When he established his own laboratory at the University of Utah in 1973, he sought to bring molecular genetics to animal cells growing in culture and to learn how to manipulate the genes of these cells. This led him to undertake a series of laboratory studies beginning in 1977 that demonstrated gene targeting in animal cells and culminated in the construction of one of the first “knockout mice” in 1989. It is for this work that Dr. Capecchi has been named the co-recipient of the 2005 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology.

From 1967 to 1969, Dr. Capecchi was a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. In 1969, he began his academic and research career at Harvard School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1971.

In 1973, Dr. Capecchi was named a Professor of Biology at the University of Utah. Since 1988, he 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.

Currently, his research efforts include the analysis of organ development and neurologic system development in the mouse.

Dr. Capecchi was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1991 and the European Academy of Sciences in 2002. Among his numerous previous honors and awards are the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the National Medal of Science, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, the Helen Lowe Bamberger Colby and John E. Bamberger Presidential Endowed Chair at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center, the Italian Phoenix-Anni Verdi Award for Genetics Research, the Massry Prize, and the Wolf Prize in Medicine.

—

2005 MARCH OF DIMES PRIZE IN DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OLIVER SMITHIES, D.Phil.
Excellence Professor of Pathology and. Laboratory Medicine University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

In a 1995 profile, The New York Times called Dr. Smithies “a scientific phenomenon, a man whose intellectual pace has continued unabated for half a century, who has been lavished with awards and honors and who continues to break new scientific ground.”

A bench scientist for more than 50 years, Dr. Smithies has devised new techniques that have enormously expanded the experimental capabilities of molecular geneticists, and has himself used them to open new frontiers in human genetics.

During the mid-1950s, Dr. Smithies described the first high-resolution electrophoresis system (starch gel), and with it he discovered that normal humans have unsuspected inherited differences in their proteins. His technique opened vast areas of new study, and its descendant, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, is a vital everyday tool of all molecular biologists today.

Then he became intrigued by the structure and evolution of mammalian genes. In 1985, Dr. Smithies published his second ground-breaking paper — on the use of homologous recombination DNA technology to alter a human gene in a living cell. Subsequent application of homologous recombination by Smithies, and independently by Dr. Mario Capecchi, led to the now worldwide use of gene targeting to “knock out” genes in mice for studying their function, and to produce “designer mice” as models of human genetic diseases. It is for this research that he was named co-recipient of the 2005 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology.

Dr. Smithies was born and reared in England, the son of an insurance salesman and a technical college teacher. As a child, he spent much of his time building things, including telescopes and radios. He attended Heath Grammar School and won a prestigious scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree with First Class Honors in physiology in 1946. He stayed on at Oxford to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate in biochemistry in 1952.

After Dr. Smithies finished his doctorate, his thesis advisor urged him “to go abroad for some experience.” He became a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and then a research assistant at the University of Toronto, Canada. After being appointed Assistant Professor of Genetics and Medical Genetics at the University of Wisconsin in 1960, he spent the next 28 years there, rising to become full professor. He was named Leon J. Cole Professor of Genetics and Medical Genetics in 1971.

In 1988, Dr. Smithies joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. His recent research has focused on using gene targeting techniques to alter many genes in the mouse germ line and to make mouse models of human diseases, including cystic fibrosis, beta-thalassemia, and high blood pressure.

Dr. Smithies was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1971 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978. He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1986 and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1998. Among his numerous other scientific awards and honors are the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the Gairdner Foundation International Award (twice), the Association of American Medical Colleges Award, and the Wolf Prize in Medicine. He has received Honorary Doctorate of Sciences degrees from the University of Chicago and Duke University, North Carolina.