Mario Capecchi: From Homeless To Nobel Laureate

Mario Capecchi’s life story is one of those stories that forces you to research and look at different sources to see if it’s really true or not. The strangest thing this genius went through was the fact that luck was against him and yet at the same time on his side.

Mario Capecchi was born in Verona, Italy on October 6, 1937. Apparently he was destined to be a happy child. His path to success was crystal clear.

On the one hand, his father, Luciano Capecchi, was a successful pilot. On the other hand, his mother, Lucy Ramberg, was of American descent and came from a family of artists with good financial means.

His father traveled all over the world and that’s how he met Lucy. The two fell madly in love and she decided to follow him to Italy and start a life by his side. She formed a group of artists in Europe called “The Bohemians” and also taught poetry at La Sorbonne. The future seemed bright and joyful for the whole family.

The Rise of Fascism

The Capecchi family didn’t expect fascism to break through in Italy, but it did. Suddenly, war drums became a daily noise. Mario Capecchi’s mother, Lucy, started a more or less clandestine campaign against fascism.

She founded a newspaper and resolutely opposed Mussolini’s so-called “racial laws”. The fighting started and Mario Capecchi’s father was drafted into the army. He had to go to Africa to join an anti-aircraft artillery unit.

Before he left, he feared for the fate of his family. He knew his wife could get into trouble with the authorities at any moment. Fearing the worst, he gave money to farmers in Bolzano to take care of his child in case his wife was arrested. They accepted it.

As expected, the Gestapo arrested Lucy Ramberg in 1941. They sent her to the Dachau concentration camp when Mario was only three years old. As a result, a group of farmers took care of him.

Up to that point there are conflicting versions. Some say they mistreated Mario and that’s why he decided to run away. Others say they ran out of money and decided to leave it behind. The truth is, they let Mario Capecchi out on the street when he was just four years old.

Mario Capecchi, a genius on the street

Mario Capecchi has no clear memories of what happened then. All he remembers is seeing himself alone and helpless in the middle of the street.

He started roaming the roads and found several groups of children who were in a similar situation. They had no adults to look after them and were forced to survive in the outside world.

This gang of kids stole food and slept on the street or wherever they found shelter. All they thought about was getting through the day. They had no idea of ​​the future. Their survival instincts were the only thing they could rely on to face adversity.

Mario Capecchi was homeless for five years. When he turned eight, he suddenly became ill. He had no idea what exactly happened. One day he passed out in the street and someone found him and decided to help him. He ended up in a hospital and found out he had typhus.

The wonders of fate

The war was over and Mario Capecchi was not stable enough to escape the hospital, as he always did when an institution “adopted” him. He had fled several times. In this case, however, it was different, because he could hardly move because of the disease.

One day a woman approached his bed. He barely recognized her. It turned out to be his mother. Surprisingly, she had survived the concentration camp and had been looking for him for 18 months. The fact that she knew where he was was a miracle.

She had changed a lot, both physically and mentally. It was a heartwarming reunion. They left for the United States, where they started a new life. Capecchi decided to study medicine. He was a brilliant student.

In the early 1980s, against the wishes of researchers at the National Institute of Health, he began an experiment on mice. He took one gene from their DNA and traded it for another.

In 2007 he won the Nobel Prize in Medicine along with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies. A woman living in Austria named Marlene Bonelli recognized his last name when he received the award.

Mario Capecchi had no idea, but she was his stepsister – the daughter of the same mother. She looked for every possible way to communicate with him, and a year later the reunion took place. Once again, luck was on his side.