Andrew Fire

Andrew Zachary Fire (born April 27, 1959) is an

American biologist and professor of pathology and of Andrew Fire
genetics at the Stanford University School of
Medicine. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine, along with Craig C. Mello,
for the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi). This
research was conducted at the Carnegie Institution of
Washington and published in 1998.

Biography
Andrew Z Fire was born in Palo Alto, California and
raised in Sunnyvale, California[1] in a Jewish[2] family.
Fire in 2008
He graduated from Fremont High School. He attended
the University of California, Berkeley for his Born Andrew Zachary Fire
undergraduate degree, where he received a B.A. in April 27, 1959
mathematics in 1978 at the age of 19.[3] He then Palo Alto, California, U.S.
proceeded to the Massachusetts Institute of Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Technology, where he received a Ph.D. in biology in Massachusetts Institute of
1983 under the mentorship of Nobel laureate geneticist Technology
Phillip Sharp. Known for RNA interference

Fire moved to Cambridge, England, as a Helen Hay Awards Meyenburg Prize (2002)
Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow. He became a member of NAS Award in Molecular Biology
the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology group (2003)
headed by Nobel laureate biologist Sydney Brenner. Wiley Prize (2003)
Massry Prize (2005)
From 1986 to 2003, Fire was a staff member of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Department of Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Embryology in Baltimore, Maryland. The initial work Medicine (2006)
on double stranded RNA as a trigger of gene silencing Scientific career
was published while Fire and his group were at the Fields Pathology, genetics
Carnegie Labs.[1] Fire became an adjunct professor in
Institutions Johns Hopkins University
the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins
Stanford University
University in 1989 and joined the Stanford faculty in
MRC Laboratory of Molecular
2003. Throughout his career, Fire has been supported
Biology
by research grants from the U.S. National Institutes of
Health. Thesis In vitro transcription studies of
adenovirus (https://www.proques
t.com/docview/30320846
4/) (1983)
Fire is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Doctoral Phillip Allen Sharp
and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He advisor
also serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors and Notable Jenny Hsieh
the National Center for Biotechnology, National students
Institutes of Health.

Nobel Prize
In 2006, Fire and Craig Mello shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work first published
in 1998 in the journal Nature.[4] Fire and Mello, along with colleagues SiQun Xu, Mary Montgomery,
Stephen Kostas, and Sam Driver, reported that tiny snippets of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) effectively
shut down specific genes, driving the destruction of messenger RNA (mRNA) with sequences matching
the dsRNA. As a result, the mRNA cannot be translated into protein. Fire and Mello found that dsRNA
was much more effective in gene silencing than the previously described method of RNA interference
with single-stranded RNA. Because only small numbers of dsRNA molecules were required for the
observed effect, Fire and Mello proposed that a catalytic process was involved. This hypothesis was
confirmed by subsequent research.

The Nobel Prize citation, issued by Sweden's Karolinska Institute, said: "This year's Nobel Laureates
have discovered a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information." The British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) quoted Nick Hastie, director of the Medical Research Council's Human
Genetics Unit, on the scope and implications of the research:

It is very unusual for a piece of work to completely revolutionise the whole way we think about
biological processes and regulation, but this has opened up a whole new field in biology.[5]

Awards and honors

Fire has received the following awards and honors:
(By chronological year of award [6])

Meyenburg Prize in 2002

Co-recipient (with Craig Mello) of National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology
in 2003
Co-recipient (with Craig Mello, Thomas Tuschl and David Baulcombe) of the Wiley Prize in
the Biomedical Sciences from Rockefeller University in 2003
Elected member National Academy of Sciences in 2004
Co-recipient (with Victor Ambros, Craig Mello, and Gary Ruvkun) of Brandeis University's
Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Medical Research in 2005
Co-recipient (with Craig Mello) of the Gairdner Foundation International Award in 2005
Co-recipient (with Craig Mello and David Baulcombe) of the Massry Prize in 2005
Co-recipient (with Craig Mello) of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize in 2006
 Co-recipient (with Craig Mello) of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2006

See also
History of RNA biology
List of Jewish Nobel laureates
List of RNA biologists

References
1. "Andrew Fire wins 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine" (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20061010085000/http://mednews.stanford.edu/fire/). Stanford School of Medicine. 2006-
10-02. Archived from the original (http://mednews.stanford.edu/fire/) on 2006-10-10.
Retrieved 2006-10-02.
2. "Jewish Nobel Prize laureates - Physiology and medicine" (https://www.science.co.il/nobel-p
rizes/Biomedical.php). www.science.co.il. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
3. Shaw, Richard (2007-03-30). "Rejected by Stanford? You'll Live" (https://www.latimes.com/a
rchives/la-xpm-2007-mar-30-oe-shaw30-story.html). L.A. Times. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
4. Fire, A.; Xu, S.; Montgomery, M.; Kostas, S.; Driver, S.; Mello, C. (1998). "Potent and
specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans" (http://ww
w.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/238264). Nature. 391 (6669): 806–811.
Bibcode:1998Natur.391..806F (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998Natur.391..806F).
doi:10.1038/35888 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2F35888). PMID 9486653 (https://pubmed.ncb
i.nlm.nih.gov/9486653). S2CID 4355692 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:435569
2).
5. "Nobel prize for genetic discovery" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5398844.stm). BBC.
2006-10-02. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20061004182319/http://news.bbc.co.uk/
2/hi/health/5398844.stm) from the original on 4 October 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-02.
6. "UMASS MEDICAL SCHOOL PROFESSOR WINS NOBEL PRIZE" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20061206221430/http://www.umassmed.edu/pap/news/MelloPrize.aspx). University of
Massachusetts Amherst. 2006-10-02. Archived from the original (http://www.umassmed.edu/
pap/news/MelloPrize.aspx) on 2006-12-06. Retrieved 2006-10-02.

External links
Andrew Z. Fire (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/802) on Nobelprize.org including the
Nobel Lecture Gene Silencing by Double Stranded RNA
Nobel Prize press release (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2006/pres
s.html)
Carnegie Institution for Science (http://www.ciw.edu/)
Nobel announcement from Stanford University (https://web.archive.org/web/2006101002571
2/http://mednews.stanford.edu/releases/2006/october/nobel.html)
US Patent 6506559 Genetic inhibition by double-stranded RNA (patent) (https://web.archive.
org/web/20070927003555/http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/6506559.html)
Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans
(https://web.archive.org/web/20061102223642/http://www.umassmed.edu/administration/upl
oads/Fire_and_Mello_Nature_1998.pdf), in Nature, via University of Massachusetts Medical
School
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