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Call it an encore performance.
A year after winning the prestigious Albert Lasker Medical Research Award,
Oliver Smithies, excellence professor of pathology, has received the O. Max
Gardner Award. The announcement was made March 6.
The award, which has been given annually since 1949, was established by the
will of N.C. Gov. Oliver Max Gardner to recognize faculty who have "made the
greatest contributions to the welfare of the human race."
It is the only award for which all faculty members of the 16 UNC campuses are
eligible and is considered the UNC system's highest faculty honor. The other
recipient for 2002 was Melissa Hayden, a ballerina and master teacher at the
North Carolina School of the Arts.
The award, which carries a $10,000 cash prize, was presented by Board of
Governors Chairman Benjamin J. Ruffin, UNC President Molly Corbett Broad and by
Charles H. Mercer Jr., the chair of the Gardner Award Committee.
A native of Yorkshire, England, Smithies received degrees in physiology and
biochemistry from Oxford University. He made the first of two scientific
contributions in 1956 when he invented an improved method for separating
proteins. His discovery allowed researchers to better understand genetic
differences between individuals.
Thirty years later, Smithies developed another technique called homologous
recombination. This process enables genes to be altered in living cells by
introducing DNA with a slightly different structure into the cells. He and
others used this procedure to custom-produce mice and develop them into adult
animals. Today, in genetic biology labs around the world, around 4,000
varieties of these mice are being used to advance the treatment of diseases
such as Alzheimer's, cancer and cystic fibrosis.
J. Charles Jennette, Brinkhous Distinguished Professor and chair of the
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, described Smithies as a
world-renowned scientist who has made numerous, extremely important
discoveries.
"The innovative methods that he has developed would be enough to warrant all of
the many awards that he has received," Jennette said. "However, he has gone on
to use these powerful tools to make major discoveries that are of tremendous
benefit to science and to medicine."
For example, Smithies not only developed the widely used technique of gel
electrophoresis, but he also used this tool to make major discoveries about the
nature of human proteins and genes, Jennette said.
"He has received the greatest acclaim for developing techniques to make very
precise modifications in mouse genes. Oliver and his close scientific
collaborator and wife, Professor Nobuyo Maeda, now are using genetically
engineered mice to make extremely valuable observations about the nature of
hypertension and atherosclerosis that will be very important for designing
better treatment for these diseases."
Jennette said one of the keys to Smithies success in his work is that he does
not see it as work.
"Oliver derives great joy from his scientific research," Jennette said. "He
personally conducts experiments, often seven days a week. This avocation is
obviously more play than work for Oliver.
"He also finds time to pursue his passion for flying. I suspect he combines
these two interests by dreaming up many great experiments while soaring over
the countryside in his glider. Oliver is a tremendous role model not only for
graduate students and postdocs, but also for other faculty.
"Simply by doing what he loves to do, he is providing excellence in research,
teaching and service to the University and the world."
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