Craig C. Mello

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Craig Cameron Mello

Born	October 18, 1960 (age 47) New Haven, Connecticut
Residence	United States
Nationality	American
Field	Biologist
Institutions	University of Massachusetts Medical School
Alma mater	Brown University Harvard University
Known for	RNA interference
Notable prizes	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2006)

Professor Craig Cameron Mello is an American biologist and Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was born October 18 1960 and was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Andrew Z. Fire, for the discovery of RNA interference. This research was studied at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and published in 1998. Mello has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since the year 2000.^[1]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Education 3 Nobel prize 4 Awards and honors 5 References 6 Other websites

[change] Early life

Mello was born in New Haven, Connecticut on October 18 1960.^[2] He was the third child of James and Sally Mello. His father, James Mello, was a paleontologist and his mother, Sally Mello, was an artist.^[2] His fathers parents moved to the US from the Portuguese islands of Azores. His parents met while at the Brown University and were the first children in their families to go to college. His grandparents on both sides finished school as teenagers to work for their families.^[2] James Mello was awarded his Ph.D. in paleontology from Yale University in 1962. The Mello family moved to Falls Church in northern Virginia so that James could take a job with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Washington, DC.^[2]

After a short time in Falls Church, the family moved to Fairfax, Virginia, when James Mello began work as Assistant Director at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.^[2] Some of his happiest early memories were holidays with his whole family in Colorado, Wyoming and more often to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.^[2]

The Mello family enjoyed long talks at the dinner table and this was very important to young Craig Mello. He learned to argue, to listen, and to accept if he was wrong about something. At a time when young Mello was not doing well in school, his family helped him build his confidence and self esteem.^[2] Mellos first few years of grade school were difficult. He was five years old when he started first grade in a local private school. He was too young to enter first grade in the public system. He doesn't know if he was a slow learner, or just not interested, but he did not do well in school until the seventh grade. In second grade, Mello only pretended that he could read and he was embarrassed of being talked to by the teacher.^[2] He enjoyed playing outdoors, in the woods and creeks, more than time spent in the classroom.^[2] At this time, his older siblings were great students, so his teacher's wanted him to do well. During these early years, Mello had no doubt that he would be a scientist when he grew up.^[2]

[change] Education

Mello went to Fairfax High School (Fairfax, Virginia).^[2] He took all of the science courses except advanced physics. Mellos favorite teachers were of earth science, chemistry and biology.

After he was awarded his high school diploma, Mello went to Brown University. Mello studied biochemistry and molecular biology for his first years at Brown University. Some of his teachers at Brown University were Frank Rothman, Ken Miller, Susan Gerbi and Nelson Fausto. He was awarded his B.S. from Brown University in 1982.^[2]

After finishing his studies at Brown, Mello went to Boulder, Colorado for more studies.^[2] He took courses in molecular, cellular and developmental biology (how plants and animals grow). Some of his teachers were called David Hirsh, Dick McIntosh, Mike Yarus, Larry Gold, and Bill Wood. Mello joined David Hirshs lab in 1982.^[2] Davids lab was filled with people, such as Dan Stinchcomb, who taught Professor Mello about molecular biology. These people were important to train Professor Mello for the future.^[2]

During Professor Mellos first year in Boulder, David Hirsh decided to take a position in industry.^[2] Because of this, Mello moved to Harvard University where he could research with Dan Stinchcomb, who was starting an independent lab.^[2]

Mello enjoyed his time at Harvard. He worked on his project and worked long hours in the lab. He was able to visit lectures about many subjects. He was awarded his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1990. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the laboratory of Dr. James Priess.^[2]

[change] Nobel prize

See also: RNA interference

In 2006, Professor Mello and Andrew Z. Fire were awarded the Nobel Prize for work that began in 1998, when Mello and Fire along with their colleagues (SiQun Xu, Mary Montgomery, Stephen Kostas, and Sam Driver) published research work ^[3] in the journal "Nature". The research was about tiny pieces of RNA causing the cell into destroy the genes Messenger RNA (mRNA) before it can produce a protein - stopping certain genes from working.

In the yearly Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scientific Meeting held on November 13, 2006 in Ashburn, Virginia, Professor Mello talked about the phone call that he received telling him he had won the Nobel Prize. He said it was after 4:30 am and he had just checked his daughter was sleeping. He returned to his bedroom and he got a phone call that his wife told him not to answer, as it was a crank call. His wife told him the phone had rung while he was out of the room and someone was making a bad joke on them by saying that he had won the Nobel prize. When he told her that this was the day that Nobel prize winners were contacted, he said "her jaw dropped." He answered the phone, and the voice on the other end told him to get dressed, and that in half an hour his life was about to change.

Sweden's Karolinska Institute chooses the Nobel Prize winners for Physiology and Medicine. They said: "This year's Nobel Laureates have discovered a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information."

Mello and Fires research, at the Carnegie Institution for Science (Fire) and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (Mello), had shown that RNA is very important in gene control. Professor Nick Hastie, director of the Medical Research Council's Human Genetics Unit, said: "It is very unusual for a piece of work to completely revolutionize the whole way we think about biological processes and regulation, but this has opened up a whole new field in biology."^[4]

[change] Awards and honors

(By chronological year of award ^[5])

• Co-recipient (with Andrew Fire) of National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology in 2003.
• Co-recipient (with Andrew Fire, Thomas Tuschl and David Baulcombe) of the Wiley Prize in the Biomedical Sciences from Rockefeller University in 2003.
• Elected member National Academy of Sciences in 2005.
• Co-recipient (with Victor Ambros, Andrew Fire and Gary Ruvkun) of Brandeis University's Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Medical Research in 2005.
• Co-recipient (with Andrew Fire) of the Gairdner Foundation International Award in 2005.
• Co-recipient (with Andrew Fire and David Baulcombe) of Massry Prize in 2005.
• Co-recipient (with Andrew Fire) of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize in 2006.
• Inaugural recipient of The Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research by Johnson & Johnson in 2006.
• Co-recipient (with Andrew Fire) of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2006.
• Recipient of an honorary doctorate by Brown University in 2007. He gave the keynote Baccalaureate Address at Commencement ceremonies.

[change] References

[change] Other websites

• Nobel Prize information
• Nobel announcement from Stanford University
• Nobel announcement from the University of Massachusetts
• US Patent 6506559 Genetic inhibition by double-stranded RNA (patent)
• Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans, in Nature, via University of Massachusetts