Mello, Craig Cameron, 1960–, American geneticist, b. New Haven, Conn., Ph.D. Harvard, 1990. Mello has been on the faculty at the Univ. of Massachusetts since 1994. In 2006 Mello and Andrew Fire were awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering RNA interference, a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information. RNA interference also protects organisms against viruses and against mutations caused by jumping genes (transposons). Their work provided a new technique for conducting biomedical research and also laid the foundation for applications in gene technology, pesticides, and health care.
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