The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s first annual Smithies Symposium took place on Thursday, May 29, 2008. Oliver Smithies gave a slightly modified version of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, which described the series of experiments that were essential in the development of a powerful technology known as gene targeting in mice, and comprise his Nobel Award-winning work. You may view Smithies’ presentation and that of his associate, Leroy Hood, online.

Funded in part by Oliver Smithies’ Nobel Award prize money, the goal of this recently established symposium is to bring scientists of international renown to campus to interact with the scientific community here, particularly graduate students.

The inaugural event featured Leroy Hood, director of the Institute for Systems Biology, located in Seattle, as well as Smithies himself, now a professor at the University of North Carolina.

Hood’s talk spanned his entire career, starting with his early attempts to combine biology and engineering-efforts that eventually led to the development of a DNA sequencing machine-and ending with his vision for the type of “individualized medicine” we can expect to see in the near future.