He lived as a feral child after the Nazis sent his mother to a death camp. His 'unworthy' ideas were rejected by the scientific establishment. Yesterday, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for a medical revolution
By Andrew Gumbel
Published: 09 October 2007
The genetics research that won Mario Capecchi a share of this year's Nobel Prize for medicine may well help to define the science of the 21st century. But the man himself was marked, in extraordinary ways, by the turbulent history of the century before.
Mr Capecchi's grandfather, a German archaeologist, was accidentally gunned down by his own men during the First World War. His father, an Italian aviator, perished in the Second World War. He himself spent that war destitute in northern Italy after his American mother was arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp – a survival tale all the more remarkable for the fact that he was just four years old when his mother was taken away.
Yesterday's prize recognises work which could have enormous implications for medicine. Mr Capecchi, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, shares the £755,000 award with another naturalised American, British-born Oliver Smithies, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Briton, Sir Martin Evans, of Cardiff University.
Mr Capecchi was lucky enough to study at Harvard under James Watson, a pioneer of DNA research, and devoted himself to the field of genetics long before it became popular or even obviously useful.
His area of interest, gene targeting, involved injecting DNA into the nuclei of cells and trying to change their genetic make-up. From the start, the dream – now rapidly turning into a reality – was to be able to control the mutation process and effectively take control of genetic change in mammalian cells.
He applied for an NIH grant a second time, and this time his application was greeted enthusiastically. "We are glad that you didn't follow our advice," the approval letter read.
Mr Capecchi spent six years at Harvard, only to conclude that the pressure to come up with quick research results was too great. The University of Utah provided a more relaxed atmosphere, "where you could work on projects whose outcome may take 10 years". He has been there ever since.
http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3041118.ece
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