Nobel winner thought prize possible, but not yet

STOCKHOLM, Oct 2 (Reuters) US scientist Craig Mello said today he had suspected his research on information flows in genes might win a Nobel prize one day, but not so soon.

Mello, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, shared the 1.37 million dollar Nobel prize for medicine with Craig Fire of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

''It's amazing. It just hasn't sunk in yet,'' Mello told Reuters from his home in Massachusetts.

''I had an inkling that it might be possible, but I am only 45 so I thought it might happen in 10 or 20 years or so,'' he added.

Mello said some of the prize money would go back to charity.

Fire, 47, told Swedish radio it was ''very nice'' to have won the prize and have some ''positive attention''.

The Nobel Assembly of Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, which awards the prize, said the findings of Fire and Mello had opened up ''exciting possibilities'' for use in gene technology.

The two men carried out experiments to find a mechanism that effectively stops faulty genes from functioning, creating the possibility of creating new drugs to control such genes and combat diseases.

REUTERS LL PM1629