Oliver Smithies
Appearance
Oliver Smithies | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | January 10, 2017 | (aged 91)
Nationality | British, American |
Alma mater | Balliol College, University of Oxford |
Known for | Gel electrophoresis, gene targeting |
Awards | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2007) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Biochemistry, genetics |
Institutions | University of Toronto University of Wisconsin–Madison University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Oliver Smithies (23 June 1925 – 10 January 2017) was a British-American geneticist and Nobel laureate,[1]
He invented gel electrophoresis in 1955,[2] which is now one of the basic techniques of biochemistry and molecular biology.
Much later, he worked on the technique of homologous recombination of transgenic DNA with genomic DNA. This is the most reliable method of altering animal genomes at present, and the technique behind gene targeting and knockout mice.
Martin Evans and Mario Capecchi were also working on this idea, and they were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2007.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-08.
- ↑ Smithies, Oliver (December 1955). "Zone electrophoresis in starch gels: group variations in the serum proteins of normal human adults". The Biochemical Journal. 61 (4): 629–641. doi:10.1042/bj0610629. ISSN 0264-6021. PMC 1215845. PMID 13276348.