The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced this morning. The prize was awarded to three men for a series of discoveries regarding embryonic stem cells and DNA recombination in mammals that led to the creation of a technique for manipulating mouse genes called gene targeting. Today, the technology is being applied to virtually all areas of biomedicine.

The three men, Mario R. Capecchi, age 70, at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Sir Martin J. Evans, age 66, at Cardiff University in Wales and Oliver Smithies, age 82, at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, will share the 1.54 million prize.