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AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The University of Utah's first Nobel Prize laureate will be the featured speaker during the 2008 commencement ceremonies.
Geneticist Mario R. Capecchi is a distinguished professor of human genetics and biology at the school. Capecchi, Sir Martin J. Evans of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, and Oliver Smithies of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill won the prize for their work developing what is known as "gene targeting" or "knockout mouse technology" -- a method that allows researchers to disable any gene in a mouse to determine what goes wrong and learn the gene's normal function.
Capecchi hasn't said what his speech will be about.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)