UNC-CH scientist wins Nobel

Smithies shares prize in medicine

CHAPEL HILL -- Sunday was an ordinary day for Oliver Smithies, 82. He flew his glider over Chapel Hill, took his wife to lunch and crafted a response to a committee that had denied his latest grant proposal.

On Monday, the scientist was awakened at 5 a.m. by a call from Stockholm, Sweden. He had won the Nobel Prize in medicine.

Smithies, a British-born professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, shares the prize with Mario Capecchi of the University of Utah's Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Sir Martin Evans of Cardiff University in Wales.

The three developed methods for manipulating genes and creating designer mice now used in labs all over the world. The work accelerated the field of genetic medicine and laid the foundation for today's research into gene therapy. It is used to study human diseases such as cystic fibrosis, cancer and heart disease.

A UNC-CH faculty member for 19 years, Smithies began his work at the University of Wisconsin in the 1980s. The three scientists worked independently but shared information. Gene-targeting allowed the researchers to use "knock-out mice," in which genes were removed to understand their effects. The first mouse with manipulated genes was born in 1989, and since then, more than 10,000 genes in mice have been studied using the technique, the Nobel citation said.

Smithies spent Monday morning at his lab, where he was bombarded by calls from reporters in Russia, France and Germany. He fielded a call from the Swedish Embassy that included an invitation to appear at the White House. Colleagues brought a bouquet of coral roses and yellow lilies. They threw together a party, but Smithies could barely get off the phone to attend. A yellow sticky note from his assistant said, "Ice cream is melting ... Come!"

"I feel rather peaceful," he said in an interview in his small, cluttered office, where little toy mice perch on his bookshelf alongside boxes of mint tea bags. "I've been working at the bench for more than 50 years, and it's nice to find that people appreciate what you've done. It feels like what a lot of people have mentioned -- a capstone on one's career."

Later, he was greeted by the cheers of scientists, doctors and students at a balloon-decorated atrium in UNC's Lineberger Cancer Center, where carrot cake was served in his honor at a reception.

"There is no doubt that this work will lead to new therapy in virtually every disease that has a genetic basis," said Dr. Etta Pisano, a vice dean in UNC-CH's medical school. "That is really not overstating the importance of this discovery."

'A nice little glow'

At a news conference, Smithies' postdoctoral fellows and lab technicians crowded in with digital cameras. He was modest, saying he gets "a nice little glow" whenever he opens a journal and sees that his methods -- now taken for granted -- are being used by scientists across the globe.

Smithies' colleagues had expected his Nobel Prize for years. In 2001, he and his fellow Nobel winners won the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, often a Nobel precursor. "People at various times have said, 'You're nominated,' " Smithies said, "and I got used to the fact that nothing ever happened."

Peter Agre, a 2003 Nobel winner in chemistry and vice chancellor for science and technology at Duke University, said he is humbled by Smithies' work. "That man is a real scientist," Agre said. "I consider myself a science wannabe in comparison."

Dr. Stuart Bondurant, former UNC-CH medical dean who recruited Smithies, said, "You can't believe his warmth, magnetism and generosity. He is literally beloved by hundreds of people who've worked with him and around him."