In 1978 , Smith , in collaboration with former Fred Sanger lab sabbatical colleague Clyde A. Hutchison III , introduced a new technique known as `` oligonucleotide-directed site-directed mutagenesis '' into molecular biology , resolving the problem of how to efficiently determine the effect of a single mutant gene .
In 1978 , Smith , with former Fred Sanger colleague Clyde A. Hutchison III , introduced a new technique into molecular biology . This technique , called `` oligonucleotide-directed site-directed mutagenesis '' , showed how to find the effect of a single mutant gene .