[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 16, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO CRAIG C. MELLO, PH.D.

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, on December 10, in Stockholm, Sweden, the 
Nobel Prize in Medicine for 2006 was awarded to Dr. Craig C. Mello of 
the University of Massachusetts Medical School for his revolutionary 
discovery of the gene-silencing process called RNA interference.
  RNAi, as it is called, is a fundamental mechanism for controlling the 
flow of genetic information. Dr. Mello's discovery is universally 
considered to be one of the most significant biomedical discoveries of 
the past decade, and it has opened up extraordinary opportunities for 
the development of new therapies for cancer, heart disease, illnesses, 
and many other conditions.
  Dr. Mello is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the 
Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine at UMass Medical School. 
His research and its international recognition by the Nobel Committee 
have brought great honor and pride to our city, Commonwealth, and 
Nation.
  Dr. Mello received his B.S. from Brown University in 1982 and his 
Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1990. He served as a postdoctoral 
fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA, 
and joined the faculty of UMass in 1994.
  I join Dr. Mello's many friends and colleagues in congratulating him 
for his landmark discovery, and I wish him well in the years to come.

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