Nobel prize for genes that shape embryos.Three biologists this week won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Below is a list of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (Swedish: Nobelpriset i fysiologi eller medicin) from 1901 to the present.[1] for unearthing the assorted genes that govern the development of fruit fly embryos. Their work has led other investigators to find similar genes that shape the embryos of higher organisms, including humans. As a result, "these three scientists have achieved a breakthrough that will help explain congenital malformations in man," stated the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The Nobel prize will be shared by Edward B. Lewis For other persons of the same name, see Edward Lewis. Edward B. Lewis (May 20, 1918 – July 21, 2004) was an American geneticist, the winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Lewis was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and graduated from E.L. Meyers High School. of the California Institute of Technology California Institute of Technology, at Pasadena, Calif.; originally for men, became coeducational in 1970; founded 1891 as Throop Polytechnic Institute; called Throop College of Technology, 1913–20. in Pasadena, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology The Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology is located in Tübingen, Germany. The main topics of scientific research conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology focus on the molecular mechanisms underlying spatial information within the embryo, in Tubingen, Germany, and Eric F. Wieschaus Eric F. Wieschaus (born June 8, 1947) is an American developmental biologist and Nobel Prize-winner. Born in South Bend, Indiana, he attended John Carroll Catholic High School in Birmingham, AL before attending the University of Notre Dame for his undergraduate studies (B.S. of Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. "It's a wonderful prize. A great deal of what's known about vertebrate development really comes from the pioneering genetic work of these people," says developmental biologist Philip A. Beachey of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, is a highly regarded medical school and biomedical research institute in the United States. in Baltimore. In the late 1970s, Nusslein-Volhard and Wieschaus joined forces to pursue a systematic strategy for isolating all the genes crucial to the early stages of embryonic development. They laced the sugar water fed to adult male fruit flies with chemicals that damage DNA. When these males mated with female fruit flies, the females often produced dead embryos that Nusslein-Volhard and Wieschaus then painstakingly studied under a microscope. The two ultimately identified more than a dozen genes that guide the formation of the early embryo's body plan, including genes that, when mutated, eliminate specific body segments. Lewis' research, begun in the 1940s, focused on developmental events that occur a bit later in embryogenesis Embryogenesis The formation of an embryo from a fertilized ovum, or zygote. Development begins when the zygote, originating from the fusion of male and female gametes, enters a period of cellular proliferation, or cleavage. than those studied by Nusslein-Volhard and Wieschaus. Once fruit fly embryos divide into segments that will become the head, the abdomen, and the tail, a flurry of genetic activity directs the development of those segments into specialized organs such as wings and legs. By examining mutant flies--say, those with an extra set of wings--Lewis discovered a novel family of genes that controls the development of organs in the fly from head to tail. Lewis' insect genes have counterparts in vertebrates, namely, many of the so-called HOX genes. Some human HOX genes can even substitute for the corresponding insect gene during fruit fly embryogenesis. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion