"Together they figured out how to remove one gene from a mouse at a time, allowing us to study how the loss of a gene might disrupt diverse biological processes—from development to the function of the brain," he commented.
"As mouse and human genomes are almost identical, this approach is having an enormous impact on our understanding of human disease."
More than 10,000 mice genes—about half the genes in the mammalian genome—have been knocked out to date.
Mice have now been used as models for more than 500 human disorders, ranging from heart disease and neurological disorders to cancer.
Last year U.S. researchers Andrew Fire and Craig Mello also won the Nobel Prize in medicine for genetics work. They discovered RNA interference, a naturally occurring process that can "silence" specific genes from being expressed.
Gene Therapy
Capecchi, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, has since focused on genes involved in organ development. The work has shed light on some inherited abnormalities.
At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Smithies has created mouse models for inherited illnesses such as cystic fibrosis and heart and blood disease.
And Evans has developed mice to investigate the genes responsible for cystic fibrosis. He is also testing the effects of gene therapy, in which genes are transplanted into cells to help treat a disease.
The award was principally awarded for the groundbreaking technology developed by the winners in the 1980s, however, said Nobel committee member Göran Hansson, speaking in Stockholm after the prize was announced.
This breakthrough has since proved "enormously important, because for the first time in history, genetics had become an experimental science," Hansson said.
Previously, he said, the study of human disease had been limited to observation and statistical association.
"Now when you find a mutation in an individual with a certain disease, you can mimic that precise mutation in a mouse and find out if the mouse gets that particular disease," Hansson added.
The development of new therapies to correct human genetic defects will build on gene modifications in mice that are based on the discoveries of Capecchi, Evans, and Smithies, he said.
Nobel Prizes
The Nobel prizes have been awarded since 1901 based on the will of chemist, engineer, and dynamite-inventor Alfred Nobel.
This year's prizes in physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and economics will be announced over the next two weeks.
The awards are officially presented each year on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
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