Craig Mello

**Craig Cameron Mello** (born October 18, 1960) is an American biologist and Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Fire for the discovery of RNA interference. Mello has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 2000.

## Family life 
Mello was born in New Haven, Connecticut on October 18 1960. 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. The paper reports that tiny snippets of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) effectively shut down specific genes, and so caused the destruction of messenger RNA (mRNA) with sequences matching the dsRNA. As a result, the mRNA cannot be translated into protein.

Fire and Mello found that dsRNA was much more effective in gene silencing than the previously described method of RNA interference with single-stranded RNA. Because only small numbers of dsRNA molecules were required for the observed effect, Fire and Mello proposed that a catalytic process was involved. This hypothesis was confirmed by later research.

The Nobel Prize citation, issued by Sweden's Karolinska Institute, said: "This year's Nobel Laureates have discovered a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information". The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) quoted Nick Hastie, director of the Medical Research Council's Human Genetics Unit, on the scope and implications of the research:

:"It is very unusual for a piece of work to completely revolutionise the whole way we think about biological processes and regulation, but this has opened up a whole new field in biology".

## Awards and honors
By year of award:
* 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.

## References
## 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