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Smith, Michael (1932- ), British-born Canadian biochemist and Nobel Prize winner. Smith developed a method for altering the nucleic acid deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) structure of protein molecules. His technique enabled scientists to determine w ....

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... to the University of British Columbia, where he became a professor of biochemistry in 1970 and where he still works in the biotechnology lab. Proteins perform a variety of crucial chemical functions in plants and animals. The best way to study the function of a specific protein is to mutate it, then observe how this changes the behavior of the entire organism. Prior to Smith's innovation, mutation was achieved by exposing random cells to mutagens (radiation or chemicals). This approach was unreliable because both radiation and chemicals mutated proteins randomly, making it impossible to determine how specific proteins had been affect ...