Nobel prize for British scientist

Published on Tuesday 9 October 2007 00:37

A BRITISH scientist was one of three people awarded the Nobel prize for medicine yesterday for his work on "knockout mice".

Along with two American colleagues, Sir Martin Evans, professor of mammalian genetics at Cardiff University, played a key role in the creation of genetically engineered mice that replicate human diseases.

Known as "knockout mice", they have targeted genes which are inactivated, or silenced. The rodents are now the universal test-bed for all areas of biomedicine, from basic research into human diseases to the development of treatments.