2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 

Media Coverage 

Boston.com : UMass gains some bragging rights in shadow of MIT, Harvard 

• "We're not in the shadows of Harvard and MIT on the international stage. They're great universities don't get me wrong, but we're not in their shadows. This says we can play, we can compete, and guess what -- we can win."
  -- UMass President Jack Wilson 
  
• "We really feel something is happening at the medical school campus. It's a very exciting time."
  --Craig C. Mello, UMass Medical School Professor, winner of 2006 Nobel Prize in medicine 
  
• "There's an atmosphere of collaboration [at The UMass Medical School]. People here nurtured what (Mello) did and said 'You're on to something.' We always knew that the medical school of the university is an extraordinary place. Now the public can get to see."
  -- Medical School Chancellor Aaron Lazare 
  

Patriot Ledger : OUR VIEW: International honor for UMass 

• This Nobel should make Massachusetts taxpayers proud of the state university and its medical school. And it gives parents and teachers something of special significance to talk about when guiding high school students to the next level.
  

The Boston Globe : UMass scholar shares Nobel for gene silencing; Technique opens path to treat disease 

• Mello and Fire's discovery "has completely transformed how everybody does science in biology?.You cannot go to a talk, you can't read a paper, you can't read a grant proposal that doesn't use RNA interference."
  -- Dr. William Hahn, an associate professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a principal investigator in the RNAi Consortium 

The Boston Herald : UMass medical researcher shares Nobel Prize in medicine 

• "[The prize-winning research is] an example of a discovery of a fundamental biological process that has an almost unlimited number of implications? The impact has just been steadily growing."
  -- Jeremy M. Berg, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences 

The Boston Herald : Nobel boon for biz: Biotech industry will see benefits 

• "The award was described as a 'world stamp of approval' on Worcester's steadily growing biomedical industry."
  

The Los Angeles Times : 2 Share Nobel for Method to Silence Specific Genes 

• "I wanted to be a scientist mainly because I just found the whole human condition and the fact that we are here, and where we came from, fascinating."
  -- Craig C. Mello, UMass Medical School Professor, winner of 2006 Nobel Prize in medicine 

The New York Times : 2 U.S. Researchers Win Nobel for Work on Genes (reprinted in the International Herald Tribune ) 

• "This was such an obvious Nobel, on everybody's list of discoveries that would receive the prize soon."
  -- Dr. Thomas Cech, an expert on RNA and president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute 
  

The New York Times : 2 American 'worm people' win Nobel for RNA work 

• "I think [work resulting from Mello and Fire's research] will be applied quite broadly in anticancer therapies in the next 10 years."
  -- Dr. Bruce Stillman, president of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island 

Public Health Genetics Unit : Nobel Prize for RNA interference pioneers 

• The [prize-winning] discovery has already lead [sic] to a wide range of research applications, using specifically designed dsRNA molecules to silence specific genes; there are also prospects for harnessing the process as a therapeutic tool to treat genetic disorders, viral infections and a range of other diseases."
  -- Dr Philippa Brice 

State House News Service 

• "I'm sure a number of folks will say, 'He's where?' And then they'll learn, yeah, as a matter of fact, UMass Medical School is one of the very best medical schools in the country and now we're going to be known not just as a medical school but also a center of technology and advancement and research par excellence."
  -- Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney 
  

USAToday : Americans share Nobel Prize in Medicine for work in controlling the activity of genes 

• "[Mello and Fire's] work has been extremely important and the award is certainly appropriate."
  -- Molecular biologist Miles Wilkinson of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center 

The Washington Post : 2 US scientists share Nobel 

• "One of the exciting things about this work is that even though it's only eight years since their paper was published, it already has obvious therapeutic potential."
  -- Jeremy M. Berg, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences