Monday, October 08, 2007

UNC PROFESSOR WINS NOBEL PRIZE!!!!

UNC News release -- Oliver Smithies wins Nobel Prize

That's right, Dr. Oliver Smithies of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, my beloved alma mater, just won the Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology this morning in Sweden. He will share the Prize with Mario R. Capecchi of the University of Utah’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Sir Martin J. Evans of the United Kingdom for "their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells."

I was fortunate enough to hear a talk given by Dr. Smithies while at UNC. I knew at the time he was a Nobel-favorite and felt honored to be in the same room with him. I'll never forget what he said describing differentiating stem cells in a petri dish:

(paraphrased, my apologies): "When you look into the microscope and see a tiny bit of heart tissue beating, no matter what faith or creed you belong to, the unanimous response is 'oh my god!'"

Congratulations Dr. Smithies!! You've made the university and the entire scientific community proud.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know I had left the comment here. Oh well, Hooray for UNC. News made the front page but not the headline which I was hoping for. Glad that you and Sachi heard him giving lecture.

Saket said...

Awesome.

An alum of NC State was the chairman of the IPCC panel that won the Nobel Peace Prize.

I know its a reach, but still. :)