Mario Capecchi

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Mario Capecchi

Born October 6, 1937 (1937-10-06) (age 70)
Verona, Italy
Fields Genetics
Institutions Harvard School of Medicine
Duke University
University of Utah
Alma mater George School
Antioch College, Ohio
Harvard University
Known for Knockout mouse
Notable awards Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2001)
Wolf Prize in Medicine (2002)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2007)
Religious stance Quaker

Mario Renato Capecchi (born 6 October 1937) is an Italian-born American molecular geneticist and a co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[1] He is currently Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics and Biology at the University of Utah School of Medicine, which he joined in 1973.

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[edit] Life

Mario Capecchi was born in the Italian city of Verona in 1937. His father was Luciano Capecchi,[2] an Italian airman who would be later reported as missing in action while manning an anti-aircraft gun in the Western Desert Campaign,[3] His mother was Lucy Ramberg, an American-born[4] daughter of Impressionist painter Lucy Dodd Ramberg and German archaeologist Walter Ramberg. During World War II, his mother was sent to the Dachau concentration camp[4][5] as punishment for pamphleteering and belonging to an anti-Fascist group.[6] Prior to her arrest[2] she had made contingency plans by selling her belongings and giving the proceeds to a peasant family near Bolzano[3] to provide housing for her son. However, after one year,[7] the money was exhausted and the family was unable to care for him. At four-and-a-half years old he was left to fend for himself on the streets of northern Italy for the next four years,[3] living in various orphanages and roving through towns with groups of other homeless children.[7]

He almost died of malnutrition. His mother, meanwhile, had been freed from Dachau and began a year-long search for him. She finally found him in a hospital bed in Reggio Emilia,[3] ill with a fever and subsisting on a daily bowl of chicory coffee and bread crust. She took him to Rome, where he had his first bath in six years.[7]

In 1946 his uncle, Edward Ramberg,[2] an American physicist at RCA, sent his mother money to return to the United States. He and his mother moved to Pennsylvania to live at an intentional cooperative community called Bryn Gweled,[8] which had been co-founded by his uncle. (Capecchi's other maternal uncle, Walter Ramberg, was also an American physicist who served as the tenth president of the Society for Experimental Stress Analysis.[9]) He graduated from George School, a Quaker boarding school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1956.

Mario Capecchi received his Bachelor of Science in chemistry and physics in 1961 from Antioch College in Ohio. Capecchi came to MIT as a graduate student intending to study physics and mathematics,[10] but during the course of his studies, he became interested in molecular biology. He subsequently transferred to Harvard to join the lab of James D. Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.[11] Capecchi received his Ph.D. in biophysics in 1967 from Harvard University, with his doctoral thesis completed under the tutelage of Watson.

Capecchi was a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University from 1967 to 1969. In 1969 he became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Harvard Medical School. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1971. In 1973 he joined the faculty at the University of Utah. Since 1988 Capecchi has also been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has taught for Duke University's Program in Genetics and Genomics.[12]

After the Nobel committee publicly announced that Capecchi had won the Nobel prize, an Austrian woman named Marlene Bonelli claimed that Capecchi was her long-lost half-brother.[13] Capecchi, met his sister Marlene Bonelli, 69, in northern Italy in May 2008. "Looking at pictures for the first time, it was obviously my sister," Capecchi told journalists, noting her resemblance to their mother. [1]

[edit] Knockout mice

Mario Capecchi is particularly well known for his pioneering work in gene targeting of the mouse embryo-derived stem cells. This work was accomplished through the efforts of Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies working on the knockout mice. This work was awarded 2007 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology.

Dr. Capecchi has also pursued a systematic analysis of the mouse Hox gene family. This gene family plays a key role in the control of embryonic development in all multicellular animals.

[edit] Honours

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved on 2007-10-08.
  2. ^ a b c Susan Sample (2007). "Scientist Profile: Mario Capecchi". University of Utah.
  3. ^ a b c d Vittorio Zucconi (2007-10-07). ""Ero un ragazzo di strada mia madre mi ha salvato"" (in Italian). La Repubblica.
  4. ^ a b Lois M. Collins (2007-10-08). "U. scientist Capecchi wins Nobel Prize". Deseret Morning News.
  5. ^ Karl Ritter and Matt Moore (2007-10-08). "US, UK Scientists Win Nobel in Medicine". ABC News.
  6. ^ Troy Goodman (2001-09-16). "U. scientist Mario Cappechi scores a 'knockout'". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved on 2007-10-08.
  7. ^ a b c Christopher Lee (2007-10-10). "From Child on Street to Nobel Laureate". Washington Post.
  8. ^ American Philosophical Society. "Edward G. Ramberg Papers". American Philosophical Society.
  9. ^ C.E. Taylor. "A tribute to Walter Ramberg".
  10. ^ Andrew Gumbel (2007-10-09). "Mario Capecchi: The man who changed our world". Belfast Telegraph.
  11. ^ Arkajit Dey (2007-10-16). "Two Nobel Prize Winners MIT-Affiliated". The Tech.
  12. ^ "Distinguished Lecture Series". Duke University.
  13. ^ Peter Popham (2007-10-18). "Reunion beckons for Nobel winner and his long lost step-sister". Belfast Telegraph.
  14. ^ "2001 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research". Lasker Foundation. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
  15. ^ "March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology: Previous Recipients". March of Dimes. Retrieved on 2007-10-10.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine
Complete roster · 1901–1925 · 1926–1950 · 1951–1975 · 1976–2000 · 2001–present
v • d • e
Wolf Prize in Medicine Laureates

George Snell / Jean Dausset / Jon J. van Rood (1978) · Roger Sperry / Arvid Carlsson / Oleh Hornykiewicz (1979) · César Milstein / Leo Sachs / James L. Gowans (1980) · Barbara McClintock / Stanley Norman Cohen (1981) · Jean-Pierre Changeux / Solomon H. Snyder / James W. Black (1982) · Donald F. Steiner (1985) · Osamu Hayaishi (1986) · Pedro Cuatrecasas / Meir Wilchek (1987) · Henri G. Hers / Elizabeth F. Neufeld (1988) · John Gurdon / Edward B. Lewis (1989) · Maclyn McCarty (1990) · Seymour Benzer (1991) · Judah Folkman (1992) · Michael Berridge / Yasutomi Nishizuka (1995) · Stanley B. Prusiner (1996) · Mary F. Lyon (1997) · Michael Sela / Ruth Arnon (1998) · Eric Kandel (1999) · Avram Hershko / Alexander Varshavsky (2001) · Ralph L. Brinster / Mario Capecchi / Oliver Smithies (2003) · Robert Weinberg / Roger Y. Tsien (2004) · Alexander Levitzki / Anthony R. Hunter / Anthony Pawson (2005) · Howard Cedar / Aharon Razin (2008)
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Persondata
NAME Capecchi, Mario
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Genetics, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007.
DATE OF BIRTH 6 October 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Verona, Italy
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Capecchi"
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