Nobel medicine laureates welcome `marvelous honor`

The three winners of the 2007 Nobel Medicine Prize said Monday they were delighted to share the prestigious award for research they conducted independently of one another.

"It's been a marvelous honor for the people working in the lab as well as the university," 70-year-old Mario Capecchi of the United States told AFP.

He shared the prize with compatriot Oliver Smithies, 82, and Britain's Martin Evans, 66, for their discoveries on how to genetically manipulate mouse embryonic stem cells, leading to laboratory rodents that replicate human disease. The three have never worked together, however.