Oliver Smithies

Geneticist Oliver Smithies, while serving in the 1980s as a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, discovered a method of introducing DNA into cells. This kind of gene targeting enabled the creation of transgenic, designer mice, which allowed researchers to study human disease better, as well as the purpose of individual genes. For this achievement, Smithies won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. He currently serves as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Updated 2010