Eric F. Wieschaus

Infobox Scientist
name = Eric F. Wieschaus
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caption = Eric F. Wieschaus
birth_date = June 8, 1947
birth_place = South Bend, Indiana
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nationality = American
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field = developmental biologist
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alma_mater = Yale University
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known_for = embryogenesis
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prizes = Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1995
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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., biology), and Yale University (Ph.D., biology) for his graduate work. In 1978, he moved to his first independent job, at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany and moved from Heidelberg to Princeton University in the United States in 1981.

Much of his research has focused on embryogenesis in the fruit fly "Drosophila melanogaster", specifically in the patterning that occurs in the early "Drosophila" embryo. Most of the gene products used by the embryo at these stages are already present in the unfertilized egg and were produced by maternal transcription during oogenesis. A small number of gene products, however, are supplied by transcription in the embryo itself. He has focused on these "zygotically" active genes because he believes the temporal and spatial pattern of their transcription may provide the triggers controlling the normal sequence of embryonic development.

In 1995, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Edward B. Lewis and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard as co-recipients, for their work revealing the genetic control of embryonic development.

Wieschaus taught for Duke University's Program in Genetics and Genomics. [http://upg.duke.edu/seminars/distinguished.html]

As of 2005, Wieschaus is the Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology at Princeton, and Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

He has three daughters and is married to molecular biologist Gertrud Schüpbach, who is also a professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, working on "Drosophila" oogenesis.

References

*Citation
id = PMID:8794677
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8794677
last=Gruenbaum
first=J
publication-date=1996 Jun 2
year=1996
title= [Nobel prize winners in medicine--1995]
volume=130
issue=11
periodical=Harefuah
pages=746-8
*Citation
id = PMID:8549267
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8549267
last=Blum
first=H E
publication-date=1995 Dec 22
year=1995
title= [The 1995 Nobel Prize for medicine]
volume=120
issue=51-52
periodical=Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr.
pages=1797-800
*Citation
id = PMID:8539733
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8539733
last=Molven
first=A
publication-date=1995 Dec 10
year=1995
title= [1995 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine. The mystery of fetal development]
volume=115
issue=30
periodical=Tidsskr. Nor. Laegeforen.
pages=3712-3
*Citation
id = PMID:7580653
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7580653
last=Connor
first=S
publication-date=1995 Oct 21
year=1995
title=Nobel prize given for work on fruit flies.
volume=311
issue=7012
periodical=BMJ
pages=1044
*Citation
id = PMID:7566128
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7566128
last=Cohen
first=B
publication-date=1995 Oct 12
year=1995
title=Nobel committee rewards pioneers of development studies in fruitflies.
volume=377
issue=6549
periodical=Nature
pages=465
doi = 10.1038/377465a0

External links

* [http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1995/wieschaus-autobio.html Nobel Autobiography]
* [http://www.ascb.org/index.cfm?navid=110&id=1384&tcode=nws3 American Society for Cell Biology] , excellent profile
* [http://www.molbio1.princeton.edu/labs/wieschaus/ Wieschaus lab]