The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research went to three individuals who pioneered the use of mouse embryonic stem cells to create animal models for human disease. The winners, credited as creators of the knockout mouse, are Mario Capecchi, distinguished professor of human genetics and biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of Utah, Martin Evans, head of Cardiff School of Biosciences and professor of mammalian genetics at Cardiff University, Wales, and Oliver Smithies, excellence professor in the department of pathology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
The collaboration between Smithies and the team of Capecchi and Evans in the late 1980s spurred the development of the first hprt knockout mice. To date more than 4,000 mouse strains owe their existence to this work.
The Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research went to Robert G. Edwards, emeritus professor of human reproduction at the ...
