Michael Smith Biography

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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 affected. Scientists needed a way to deliberately alter a protein molecule's DNA structure (its sequence of amino acids).
In the early 1980s Smith decided to try altering a viral DNA molecule because viruses transmit their genetic code into bacterial cells when they are inserted into a bacterium. The bacteria then multiply, duplicating the gene. First, Smith spliced a normal gene into a single strand of viral DNA. He then created a complementary segment of DNA, but altered one specific coding site with a mutagen. He called this technique site-specific mutagenesis. The mutated segment then bonded to the normal gene, creating a double-stranded DNA structure. When this was inserted ...

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