Nobel laureate is long-lost half-brother, Austrian woman says

Oct 20, 2007, 11:33 GMT

Vienna - Being awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine may have a surprising side-effect for Italian-born Mario Capecchi, 70. A 68-year-old woman living in Finkenstein, Austria claims to have discovered her long-lost half-brother in the Nobel laureate, Austrian media reported.

Marlene Bonelli, born in 1939, had been adopted by the Southern Tyrolian family Bonelli after their mother, Lucia (Lucy) Ramberg was deported to the Dachau concentration camp in 1941.

Her older half-brother was taken to safety to a farmer's family near Bolzano, but after the money his mother had provided ran out, he was left to fend for himself on the streets or living in orphanages for more than four years, almost dying of malnutrition.

Ramberg survived the death camp, was re-united with her son after a long search and emigrated to the United States.

The molecular geneticist Capecchi, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics and Biology at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, was one of three co-winners of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Medicine.

The three scientists were awarded the prize for their groundbreaking work regarding the principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells.

After the high honours for Capecchi became public, relatives in South Tyrol showed Bonelli an old photo of the Nobel laureate, claiming he was her brother. 'I only found out now and I am happy to know that he is still alive and especially that our mother remarried,' Bonelli said.

Now she hopes to meet her half-brother, but did not want to impose on him, the woman said. 'I read about him in the media, but personal contact with him and his family would be more important. With a little luck this could happen,' she was quoted as saying.

If the meeting comes about, the elderly lady doesn't want any publicity. According to an ORF TV report aired on Friday evening, documents exist to shore up Bonelli's claims.