Mario Capecchi

Mario Capecchi
Born	October 6, 1937 (1937-10-06) (age 74) Verona, Italy
Nationality	United States
Fields	Genetics
Institutions	Harvard School of Medicine 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)

Mario Renato Capecchi (Verona, Italy, 6 October 1937) is an Italian-born American molecular geneticist and a co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering a method for introducing homologous recombination in mice employing embryonic stem cells, with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies.^[1] He is currently Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics and Biology at the University of Utah School of Medicine, which he joined in 1973.

Life

Mario Capecchi was born in the Italian city of Verona as the only child of Luciano Capecchi, an Italian airman who would be later reported as missing in action while manning an anti-aircraft gun in the Western Desert Campaign,^[2] and Lucy Ramberg, an American-born^[3] 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^[3] as punishment for pamphleteering and belonging to an anti-Fascist group.^[4] Prior to her arrest^[5] she had made contingency plans by selling her belongings and giving the proceeds to a peasant family near Bolzano^[2] to provide housing for her only child. However, after one year,^[6] 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,^[2] living in various orphanages and roving through towns with groups of other homeless children.^[6]

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,^[2] 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.^[6]

In 1946 his uncle, Edward Ramberg, 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,^[7] 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.^[8]) He graduated from George School, a Quaker boarding school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1956.^[5]

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,^[9] 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.^[10] 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 given a talk for Duke University's Program in Genetics and Genomics as part of their Distinguished Lecturer Series.^[11]

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.^[12] In May 2008, Capecchi met with Bonelli, 69, in northern Italy, and confirmed that she was his sister.^[13]

Knockout mice

Capecchi is particularly well known for his pioneering work in gene targeting of the mouse embryo-derived stem cells, working on the knockout mice (a genetically engineered mouse in which one or more genes have been turned off through a targeted mutation). This work was accomplished together with the efforts of Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies, and recognized in the 2007 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology.^[5]

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.

Honours

• 1992 - Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience Research
• 1993 - Gairdner Foundation International Award for Achievements in Medical Sciences
• 1993 - Gairdner Foundation International Award
• 1994 - General Motors Cancer Reseearch Foundation Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize
• 1996 - Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences
• 1996 - German Molecular Bioanalytics Prize
• 1997 - Franklin Medal for Advancing Our Knowledge of the Physical Sciences
• 1998 - Feodor Lynen Lectureship
• 1998 - Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence
• 1998 - Baxter Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences
• 1999 - Helen Lowe Bamberger Colby and John E. Bamberger Presidential Endowed Chair in the University of Utah Health Sciences Center
• 2000 - Lectureship in the Life Sciences for the Collège de France
• 2000 - Horace Mann Distinguished Alumni Award, Antioch College
• 2000 - Italian Premio Phoenix-Anni Verdi for Genetics Research Award
• 2001 - Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, co-winner with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies^[14]
• 2001 - Spanish Jiménez-Diáz Prize
• 2001 - Pioneers of Progress Award
• 2001 - National Medal of Science^[15]
• 2002 - John Scott Medal Award
• 2002 - Massry Prize
• 2003 - Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research
• 2002/3 - Wolf Prize in Medicine
• 2005 - March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology
• 2007 - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, co-winner with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007". Nobelprize.org. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2007/index.html. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Vittorio Zucconi (2007-10-07). "Ero un ragazzo di strada mia madre mi ha salvato" (in Italian). La Repubblica. http://www.repubblica.it/2007/10/sezioni/scienza_e_tecnologia/nobel-medicina-2007/storia-capecchi/storia-capecchi.html. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Lois M. Collins (2007-10-08). "U. scientist Capecchi wins Nobel Prize". Deseret Morning News. http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695216829,00.html. 
4. ^ Troy Goodman (2001-09-16). "U. scientist Mario Cappechi scores a 'knockout'". Salt Lake Tribune. http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7118310. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} Susan Sample (2007). "Scientist Profile: Mario Capecchi". University of Utah. http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/features/capecchi/. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} Christopher Lee (2007-10-10). "From Child on Street to Nobel Laureate". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100800252_pf.html. 
7. ^ American Philosophical Society. "Edward G. Ramberg Papers". American Philosophical Society. http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/r/ramberg.htm. 
8. ^ C.E. Taylor. "A tribute to Walter Ramberg". http://sem.org/SEM-HISTORY/sem_history23_5.htm. 
9. ^ Andrew Gumbel (2007-10-09). "Mario Capecchi: The man who changed our world". Belfast Telegraph. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article3041565.ece. 
10. ^ Arkajit Dey (2007-10-16). "Two Nobel Prize Winners MIT-Affiliated". The Tech. http://tech.mit.edu/V127/N46/nobel.html. 
11. ^ "Distinguished Lecture Series". Duke University. http://upg.duke.edu/seminars/distinguished.html. 
12. ^ Peter Popham (2007-10-18). "Reunion beckons for Nobel winner and his long lost step-sister". Belfast Telegraph. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article3073785.ece. 
13. ^ "'Looking at the pictures, it was obviously my sister,' Capecchi said, noting her resemblance to their mother."Associated Press (2008-06-06). "Nobel Winner Reunited With Sister Lost in WWII". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=5018719. 
14. ^ "2001 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research". Lasker Foundation. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20070930181605/http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/library/2001b_cit.shtml. Retrieved 2007-10-01. 
15. ^ National Science Foundation - The President's National Medal of Science

External links

• Howard Hughes Medical Institute biography
• Mario Capecchi iBioMagazine talk: The Birth of Gene Targeting
• Mario Capecchi Nobel Prize lecture
• Eccles Institute of Human Genetics biography
• University of Utah biography
• Interviews with Mario Capecchi from Dolan DNA Learning Center's DNA Interactive
• Capecchi animation from Dolan DNA Learning Center's DNA from the Beginning
• Interview with Dr Capecchi Futures in Biotech 63: How To Use A Mouse

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