Michael Smith (chemist) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Michael Smith
Michael Smith
Born	(1932-04-26)26 April 1932 Blackpool, England
Died	4 October 2000(2000-10-04) (aged 68) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Alma mater	University of Manchester (BSc, PhD)
Known for	Site-directed mutagenesis
Awards	FRS (1986) Flavelle Medal (1992) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1993)
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry
Institutions	University of British Columbia University of Wisconsin–Madison
Thesis	Studies in the stereochemistry of diols and their derivatives (1956)
Influences	Fred Sanger Clyde A. Hutchison III Har Gobind Khorana

Michael Smith CC OBC FRS (born April 26, 1932 – died October 4, 2000) was a famous Canadian biochemist and businessman. He was born in Britain but later became a Canadian citizen. In 1993, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Kary Mullis. Michael Smith received this award for his important work in developing a method called site-directed mutagenesis.

After earning his PhD in 1956 from the University of Manchester, he moved to Canada. He worked with another Nobel Prize winner, Har Gobind Khorana, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Later, Smith became a professor of biochemistry at the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 1966. He also helped start and lead important research centers, like the UBC Biotechnology Laboratory and the Genome Sequencing Centre.

Early Life and Education

Michael Smith was born on April 26, 1932, in Blackpool, England. In 1956, he moved to Canada and became a Canadian citizen in 1963. He married Helen Wood Christie in 1960, and they had three children. Later in his life, he lived with his partner Elizabeth Raines in Vancouver until he passed away on October 4, 2000.

Michael went to a public elementary school called St. Nicholas Church of England School. Not many children from public schools in England went on to university back then. However, Michael did very well on an important test called the eleven plus exam. He earned a scholarship to attend the Arnold School for Boys. Another scholarship allowed him to study Chemistry at the University of Manchester. He was very interested in industrial chemistry and earned his BSc and then his PhD in 1956. His PhD research was about the structure of certain chemical compounds called diols.

Career in Science

Becoming a Researcher

Michael Smith's research journey began in Canada. He worked with Har Gobind Khorana, who was creating new ways to make nucleotides. At that time, it was a new idea to use physics and chemistry to understand living things. Scientists had just found out that DNA is the genetic material that tells a cell what to do. Khorana and others were trying to figure out how DNA gives instructions to make proteins, which are the building blocks of an organism.

After a short time in Wisconsin, Smith returned to Vancouver. He became a senior scientist at the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. There, he studied how salmon eat and survive, and how they find their way back to their birth streams. But his main interest was still making nucleic acids. He also worked as a professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Discovering Site-Directed Mutagenesis

Michael Smith was very interested in how genes work inside DNA. Genes hold and pass on biological information. In 1977, he and his team made an exciting discovery. They found a way to create changes, called mutations, at any specific spot within a virus's genetic material. This was a very efficient way to make changes in genes that could be passed down.

In 1978, Smith, working with Clyde A. Hutchison III, introduced a new method. They called it "oligonucleotide-directed site-directed mutagenesis." This method solved a big problem: how to easily find out what happens when just one gene is changed. They developed a way to create specific changes in DNA. This allowed scientists to compare different protein molecules and see what the original change did.

This new technology made it possible to quickly find and change genes on purpose. This could change the features of an organism. It opened doors for new ways to diagnose and treat genetic diseases. It even helped create new forms of life. This method was a key step for other important technologies like polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Synthetic Biology.

Their paper describing site-directed mutagenesis was published in 1978. For this important work, Michael Smith shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kary Mullis. Mullis invented PCR.

Using site-directed mutagenesis, scientists have been able to:

• Study diseases like Alzheimer's.
• Look into gene therapy for conditions like cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell disease.
• Understand how proteins work in the brain and design new medicines.
• Examine viruses involved in diseases that affect the immune system.
• Make industrial enzymes better for use in food science.

Leading Research Centers

Michael Smith also took on leadership roles in science. In 1981, he was elected to the UBC Senate. He helped guide important research programs in Canada. In 1982, he started the Centre for Molecular Genetics and became its director.

In 1987, the Biotechnology Laboratory was created at UBC, and Smith became its director. He was very important in bringing scientists together and planning for the "Protein Engineering Network of Centres of Excellence" (PENCE).

Throughout the 1980s, Smith and his colleagues pushed for a facility in Canada to join the Human Genome Project. This project aimed to map all human genes. In 1999, the Genome Sequence Centre was opened. Its goal was to develop new technologies to study genes, especially for cancer research. It also helped other projects in health, environment, and agriculture.

Business Ventures

In 1981, Michael Smith also became a businessman. He co-founded a company called ZymoGenetics in Seattle, USA, with Professors Earl W. Davie and Benjamin D. Hall. This company worked on making recombinant DNA proteins. Recombinant DNA is a way to combine DNA from different sources. It is used a lot in basic research. ZymoGenetics was later bought by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Recombinant DNA is also used in human and animal medicine, farming, and bioengineering.

Awards and Honours

Michael Smith received many awards besides the Nobel Prize. He was also known for being very generous. He gave half of his Nobel Prize money to researchers studying the genetics of schizophrenia. The other half he gave to BC Science World and to the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology. In 1999, he received the Royal Bank Award and donated that money to the BC Cancer Foundation.

Michael Smith, Nobel Prize winner, at a party in 1994.

Michael Smith at a party in 1994.

Several honorary degrees were also given to him. The following places and awards are named in his honour:

His election certificate to the Royal Society praised his many contributions. It noted his work in creating new ways to make and study nucleotides and polynucleotides. It also highlighted his new methods for making and sequencing DNA. Most importantly, it recognized his pioneering use of synthetic DNA for specific changes in site-directed mutagenesis.

See also

In Spanish: Michael Smith (químico) para niños