Mario Capecchi is an Italian-American geneticist who pioneered gene targeting, a technique for deliberately disabling or altering a specific gene in a living mouse through homologous recombination, in which a modified piece of DNA introduced into a cell replaces the original version of a gene at its natural location in the genome. Developed through the 1980s at the University of Utah, this technique made it possible to create knockout mice, animals genetically engineered to lack a particular gene entirely, which became one of the most widely used tools in biology and medicine for studying what a specific gene actually does by observing the effects of its absence. Capecchi's own early life included several years as a homeless child in wartime and postwar Italy after his mother was arrested by the Gestapo, before he was eventually reunited with her and emigrated to the United States. Capecchi shared the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice using embryonic stem cells.
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Birth YearSourced to the subject's own account Birth DateSourced to the subject's own account FieldSourced to the subject's own account NationalitySourced to the subject's own account Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own accountDevelopment of gene targeting in mice (knockout mice); shared the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies 1 BirthplaceSourced to the subject's own account Connections
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1. Mario Capecchi (Wikipedia)
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born October 6, 1937) is an Italian-born American molecular geneticist and a co-awardee of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering a method to create mice in which a specific gene is turned off, known as knockout mice.
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