Oliver Smithies Investigator Award recipients are selected based on their sustained excellence in their chosen disciplines, their international reputation as a leader in their fields and the impact of their research within the medical and scientific communities.
Dr. Pardo-Manuel de Villena was selected for his leadership of the Collaborative Cross, the most genetically diverse mouse population in the world, which is generated and housed at UNC. This project has allowed the creation of mice with wide genetic diversity, which is comparable to the genetic variation found in humans, providing a new tool to probe the genetic basis of many diseases, such as cancer.