enetics is one of the fastest growing areas of research. Carolina alone will devote over $245 million in the next decade for genomic sciences.

But the field would not be where it is today without the pioneering work of Oliver Smithies, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, whose name abounded in headlines recently after he received the 2001 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research—an award equivalent in the medical arena to a Nobel Prize.

Smithies won the award along with two other scientists—Mario Capecchi of the University of Utah and Martin Evans of Cardiff University in Wales—for their work on homologous recombination, a revolutionary gene-targeting technique that allows scientists to engineer mice that model a variety of human diseases, including cystic fibrosis, heart disease, sickle cell anemia, and high blood pressure. In 1997, Smithies also won the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cardio-vascular/Metabolic Research for his research using this technique to show the role genes play in high blood pressure.

Over the years, about 4,000 varieties of these custom mice have been made, and they have become standard in genetics labs all over the world. Jeffrey Houpt, dean of the School of medicine, puts it this way, "Smithies has created a technique that has moved the work of scores of scientists forward."

Homologous recombination basically involves replacing one gene with another. Scientists introduce artificially created DNA into embryonic stem cells of mice to modify one of the cells’ genes. Stem cells with the modified gene are returned to a normal female mouse to complete their development. Her offspring have the altered gene and can transmit it to their own offspring. This allows researchers insight into what that gene controls. They can also see how drugs and other treatments affect the mice.

Smithies achieved one of his first breakthroughs in genetics research in the mid-1950s at Connaught Medical Research Laboratory in Toronto. There he developed a process known as high-resolution gel electrophoresis, which gave scientists a quick and easy way to separate proteins. It also led to the discovery of inherited differences in the serum proteins of healthy individuals. These are the genetic fingerprints used as evidence in court.

At the age of 76, Smithies has been working in the field of genetics for more than 50 years. Unlike most scientists of his status, Smithies still slaves away at the bench every day doing his own experiments. At the moment, he’s working with his postdoctoral fellows on manipulating genes within bone marrow in hopes of finding a way to replace those causing inherited diseases such as sickle cell anemia.

Despite all the publicity he’s received, Smithies says his lab is business as usual. "What people need to understand about scientists," Smithies says, "is that their work is their reward. If you enjoy the science, you have something to look forward to every day."