Posted on 10/02/2006 2:27:49 PM PDT by neverdem
This year’s Nobel prize for physiology or medicine has been awarded to two American researchers, Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello, for a far-reaching discovery about how genes are controlled within living cells.
The discovery was made in 1998, only eight years ago. It has been recognized with unusual speed by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, which often lets decades elapse before awarding its accolade.
The two scientists’ finding clarified a series of puzzling results obtained mostly by plant biologists trying to change the colors of petunias. By clarifying what was going on, they discovered a novel and quite unexpected system of gene regulation and began an explosive phase of research in a field known variously as RNA interference or gene silencing.
This natural method of switching genes off has turned out to be a superb research tool, allowing scientists to understand the role of new genes by suppressing them. The method may also lead to a new class of drugs that switch off unwanted processes in disease. A gene-silencing drug designed to treat macular degeneration is already in clinical trials.
“This was such an obvious Nobel, on everybody’s list of discoveries that would receive the prize soon,” said Dr. Thomas Cech, an expert on RNA and president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Dr. Bruce Stillman, president of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, said the prize was intended to recognize a new field of research, which has had “a spectacular birth and expansion,” as well as the discovery by Dr. Fire and Dr. Mello that started it.
Dr. Fire, now at Stanford University, worked at the Carnegie Institution of Washington when he made the discovery. Dr. Mello, a frequent collaborator, is at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Both are “worm people,” as...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Nobel prize for genetic discovery ~ goes to two US scientists
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