Didier Stainier (born 1963) is a Belgian/American developmental geneticist who is currently a director at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim, Germany.

Scientific career

Didier Stainier studied biology in Wales (United World College of the Atlantic), Belgium ( University of Liège) and the USA ( Brandeis University) where he got a BA in 1984. He has a PhD in biochemistry and biophysics from Harvard University (1990). During his PhD work, he investigated

axon guidance Axon guidance (also called axon pathfinding) is a subfield of neural development concerning the process by which neurons send out axons to reach their correct targets. Axons often follow very precise paths in the nervous system, and how they mana ...

and target recognition in the developing mouse with Walter Gilbert. Subsequently, he initiated the studies on zebrafish

cardiac development Heart development, also known as cardiogenesis, refers to the prenatal development of the heart. This begins with the formation of two endocardial tubes which merge to form the tubular heart, also called the primitive heart tube. The heart is th ...

as a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellow with

Mark Fishman Mark Fishman is an American cardiologist, a professor in the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and Chief of the Pathways Clinical Service service at the MGH for patients with complex medical disorders. A researcher and clini ...

at the

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

(Boston).

Scientific interests

Together with the many students and postdocs in his laboratory, Stainier helped pioneer the use of the zebrafish model to study a wide range of questions pertaining to vertebrate organ development and function, and has published extensively. His forward genetic analyses of heart development revealed the unexpected role of several

signaling pathways Signal transduction is the process by which a chemical or physical signal is transmitted through a cell as a series of molecular events, most commonly protein phosphorylation catalyzed by protein kinases, which ultimately results in a cellular ...

including sphingosine 1-phosphate signaling and the discovery of the long-elusive sphingosine 1-phosphate transporter. Additional genetic screens led to the elucidation of

transcriptional Transcription is the process of copying a segment of DNA into RNA. The segments of DNA transcribed into RNA molecules that can encode proteins are said to produce messenger RNA (mRNA). Other segments of DNA are copied into RNA molecules calle ...

networks regulating

endoderm Endoderm is the innermost of the three primary germ layers in the very early embryo. The other two layers are the ectoderm (outside layer) and mesoderm (middle layer). Cells migrating inward along the archenteron form the inner layer of the gast ...

formation and endothelial cell specification as well as extracellular signals regulating liver induction. He pushed the frontiers of '' in vivo''

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...

to reveal new insights into cardiac valve formation and cardiac trabeculation, and used cellular approaches to gain a detailed understanding of these processes. Stainier developed and used single-cell analyses to provide the first ''in vivo'' demonstration of the

hemangioblast Hemangioblasts are the multipotent precursor cells that can differentiate into both hematopoietic stem cells, hematopoietic and endothelial cells. In the mouse embryo, the emergence of blood islands in the yolk sac at embryonic day 7 marks the ons ...

, a formerly hypothetical cell that gives rise to both endothelial and blood cells, as well as the discovery of a new mode of blood vessel formation. His studies on gut looping morphogenesis revealed the importance of tissue-level physical forces in shaping organs, and his studies on gut lumen formation revealed the importance of fluid flow in this process. He developed a number of cell ablation models that allowed him and others to gain new insights into the process of organ regeneration, with potential implications for novel disease therapies. Most recently, he has also made significant contributions to the understanding of genetic compensation.

Selected awards and honors

*Wien International Scholar, Brandeis University 1982-1984 *Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow 1991-1994 *Packard Foundation Fellow in Science and Engineering 1995-2000 *Established Investigator,

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and death ...

2000-2003 *Mossman Award in Developmental Biology,

American Association of Anatomists The American Association for Anatomy (AAA), based in Rockville, MD, was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1888 as the Association of American Anatomists for the "advancement of anatomical science." AAA later changed its name to the American Associa ...

2002 *Annual Byers Award in Basic Science, UCSF 2003-2004 *Outstanding Faculty Mentorship Award, UCSF 2003 * NIH DEV1, study section founding Chair 2003-2006 *Elected Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

2008 * Officier dans l'ordre de Léopold de Belgique 2013 *

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

(ERC) Advanced Grant 2015 *Elected Member of European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) 2016 *Elected Member of Academia Europaea 2016 * Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Award (European Zebrafish Society) 2017 *President, International Zebrafish Society (IZFS) 2020 *

(ERC) Advanced Grant 2020

References

Interviews

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Videos

iBiology Seminar Part I: Vertebrate Organ Development: The Zebrafish Heart

iBiology Seminar Part II: Cardiac TrabeculationiBiology Seminar Part III: Genetic CompensationPositional cloning of cloche, a gene that drives endothelial and hematopoietic lineage specification. (Genetics Society of America)Curing Diabetes One Fish at a Time: The Long Road of Translational Research. (NIH Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series)

External links

Website Department of Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung ResearchWebsite of the Max Planck Society
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Website of the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceWebsite of the European Research Council (ERC)

Website of European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)Website of Academia EuropaeaeLife websiteWebsite of the European Zebrafish SocietyWebsite of the International Zebrafish Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stainier, Didier 1963 births Belgian geneticists Brandeis University alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Living people Scientists from Liège People educated at Atlantic College People educated at a United World College Max Planck Institute directors Members of Academia Europaea