Academic Background

Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine

Dr. Craig C. Mello received his B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry from Brown University in 1982, and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1990. From 1990 to 1994 he conducted postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. He has been a member of the University of Massachusetts Medical School faculty since 1995, and a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator since 2000. His pioneering research on RNAi, in collaboration with Dr. Andrew Fire, has been recognized with numerous awards culminating with the prestigious 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

RNA-mediated Gene Regulation

In much the same way that we use short search queries to navigate the World Wide Web, cells use short segments of genetic code to find and regulate matching information. The proteins that mediate these searches are highly conserved in plants and animals and are essential for viability and fertility. Craig Mello is investigating how these search mechanisms work and how organisms use them to regulate, share, and propagate genetic information.

For more information about Dr. Mello's research, please visit his Howard Hughes Medical Institute page at:

https://www.hhmi.org/research/rna-interference-and-development-c-elegans