MU professor Smith receives Nobel Prize

An MU professor officially receives the Nobel Prize for the first time for work done at the university.

Biology professor George Smith gave a lecture in Stockholm, Sweden on Saturday, ahead of Monday’s honor in the chemistry category.

Smith studied phages, or bacterial viruses, in a way that could help the fight against diseases like cancer and Crohn’s.

“Phage display was a series of small, incremental advances from the knowledge that I had. The ideas, the published findings, and so on that my science community had made available,” Smith said Saturday.

“I feel that I’m accepting this award as a representative of my science community. And I say ‘my science community’ because I belong to the community, not because the community belongs to me.”

Smith has been an MU professor for about 40 years. He learned he was receiving the Nobel prize in October.