Profile
Craig Mello, born in New Haven, Connecticut, is an American molecular biologist whose groundbreaking discovery of RNA interference (RNAi) earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2006, which he shared with Andrew Z. Fire. He graduated in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Brown University in 1982 and received his Ph.D. in Cellular and Developmental Biology from Harvard University in 1990. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, he joined the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, where he became a full professor in 1994 and currently holds the title of Distinguished Professor. Since 2000, he has also been a researcher at the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
His most notable contribution was the identification of the RNA interference mechanism, detailed in a paper published in Nature in 1998. In that study, Mello and Fire demonstrated that introducing small double-stranded RNA molecules into nematode (Caenorhabditis elegans) cells precisely inhibited the expression of genes with matching nucleotide sequences. The biological activity of RNAi revealed a conserved genetic defense mechanism essential for gene expression control, antiviral responses, and epigenetic regulation.
Mello also co-founded several biotechnology companies aiming to apply RNAi technology in therapeutic and agricultural contexts. These include Atalanta Therapeutics, which develops RNAi-based therapies for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s, and Phio Pharmaceuticals (formerly RXi Pharmaceuticals), which focuses on RNAi therapeutics and currently invests in cancer immunotherapy.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, he has received several other awards, including the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences (2003), the Gairdner International Award (2005), and the Massry Prize (2005). He has also been awarded several honorary doctorates, including from Brown University (2007) and the University of the Azores (2012), the latter recognizing not only his scientific achievements but also his Azorean roots. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2005), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008), the American Philosophical Society (2009), and the Lisbon Academy of Sciences (as foreign correspondent in 2010 and as honorary member in 2025).
