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Oliver Smithies invented Gel electrophoresis in 1950. He later discovered, simultaneously with Mario Capecchi, the technique of homologous combination of transgenic DNA with genomic DNA, a much more reliable method of altering animal genomes than previously used, and the technique behind Knock-out mice.

Smithies was born on 23 July 1925 at Halifax, West Yorkshire. He read Physiology (BA First class 1946, MA 1951) and Biochemistry (DPhil 1951) at Balliol College, Oxford.

• 1953-1960: Connaught Medical Research Laboratory, University of Toronto, Canada
• 1960-1988: Assistant, Associate and Leon J. Cole and Hilldale Professor of Genetics and Medical Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 1988 to Present: Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• 1971 - Elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences.
• 1978 - Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• 1986 - Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• 1990 - Gairdner Foundation International Award for contributions to medical science.
• 1993 - North Carolina Award for science.
• 1998 - American Association of Medical Colleges' Award for Distinguished Research was awarded to Smithies and Capecchi.
• 1998 - Elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society.
• 2001 - Smithies was awarded the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the second most prestigious award in medicine, with Martin Evans and Mario Capecchi for his work on homologous recombination.
• 2002 - O. Max Gardner Award, the highest award at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his current institution.
• 2003 - Elected to the U.S. Institute of Medicine, one of the highest honors given to U.S. health professionals.
• 2003 - Smithies received the Wolf Prize in Medicine, the third most prestigious award in medicine, with Mario Capecchi and Ralph L. Brinster.
• 2005 - The USA charity March of Dimes awarded their annual prize in Developmental Biology for research in gene targeting jointly to Smithies and Mario Capecchi.

• Smithies' Lab Page
• Lasker Award details
• Text of Smithies' Interview about Lasker Award
• List of prize winners on March of Dimes website
• UNC Press release of Smithies' election to Institute of Medicine
• UNC Press release of Smithies' receipt of the O. Max Gardner Award

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