Mario Capecchi

University of Utah / Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Mario Renato Capecchi is an Italian-American molecular geneticist at the University of Utah who, together with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies, developed gene targeting by homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells — the technique that allows researchers to create mice with specific genes knocked out or modified. Capecchi demonstrated that it is possible to introduce defined mutations into any gene in a mammalian genome by exploiting the cell's own homologous recombination machinery to swap out a normal gene for an engineered version. This knockout mouse technology has been used to create thousands of mouse models of human diseases, yielding insights into cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and immune disorders. Capecchi shared the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Evans and Smithies. The principles of his work have been extended by CRISPR-Cas9 technology, and his mouse models remain indispensable tools in pharmaceutical drug development and basic biomedical research.