Dr. George P. Smith is a distinguished molecular biologist renowned for his transformative contributions to protein engineering and molecular biology. Born in Norwalk, Connecticut on March 10, 1941, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Haverford College in 1963 and later completed his Ph.D. in bacteriology and immunology from Harvard University in 1970. After postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin with Nobel laureate Oliver Smithies, he joined the faculty at the University of Missouri in 1975, where he spent his entire academic career. Dr. Smith's pioneering research trajectory led to his appointment as Curators' Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences, a position he held until his retirement in 2015 when he became Professor Emeritus.
Dr. Smith's most significant contribution to science is the development of phage display technology in 1985, a groundbreaking technique that harnesses bacteriophages to connect proteins with their genetic information. This elegant method allows researchers to evolve new proteins with specific binding properties by inserting foreign DNA fragments into phage gene III, causing the resulting fusion proteins to be displayed on the phage surface. Phage display has revolutionized drug development, directly enabling the creation of therapeutic antibodies that treat conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, and certain cancers. For this seminal work, which represents a brilliant application of evolutionary principles to solve chemical problems, Dr. Smith was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which he shared with Sir Gregory Winter and Frances Arnold.
As the first University of Missouri professor to receive a Nobel Prize for work conducted at the institution, Dr. Smith's achievements represent the first Nobel Prize awarded within the University of Missouri System. His phage display technology has not only transformed pharmaceutical development but has also been applied to vaccine research for challenging diseases such as malaria and babesiosis. Throughout his career, Dr. Smith has maintained a distinctive interdisciplinary approach, integrating his undergraduate mathematical training with biological research to develop probabilistic frameworks for understanding molecular interactions. Though retired since 2015, his enduring legacy continues to shape modern biotechnology, with phage display remaining a cornerstone technique in laboratories worldwide for protein engineering and therapeutic development.
