Gerd Jürgens (also spelt Juergens) (born 1949) is a plant developmental biologist and emeritus Director of the Cell Biology Department at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology and Head of the Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP) at the Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen. He has published extensively in leading journals, including eight papers in the journal

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

as well as various articles in the journals

Cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

Journal of Cell Biology The ''Journal of Cell Biology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Rockefeller University Press. History In the early 1950s, a small group of biologists began to explore intracellular anatomy using the emerging technology of ele ...

and

The Plant Journal ''The Plant Journal'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of plant science published by Wiley-Blackwell for the Society for Experimental Biology. It was established in 1991 and is currently edited by Lee Sweetlove. The journal is published tw ...

Research

During his postdoctoral years in the 1980s he worked with

Nobel prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winners

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Christiane (Janni) Nüsslein-Volhard (; born 20 October 1942) is a German developmental biologist and a 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate. She is the only woman from Germany to have received a Nobel Prize in the sciences. Nü ...

and

Eric Wieschaus Eric Francis Wieschaus (born June 8, 1947 in South Bend, Indiana) is an American evolutionary developmental biologist and 1995 Nobel Prize-winner. Early life Born in South Bend, Indiana, he attended John Carroll Catholic High School in Birming ...

at the

European Molecular Biology Laboratory The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to molecular biology research and is supported by 27 member states, two prospect states, and one associate member state. EMBL was created in 1974 and ...

(EMBL) in Heidelberg on the topic of ''

Drosophila melanogaster ''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (the taxonomic order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the "vinegar fly" or "pomace fly". Starting with Ch ...

'' embryogenesis. At the age of 37 he made the switch from animal to plant research and became one of the first researchers to work on what was later to become the model plant organism: ''

Arabidopsis thaliana ''Arabidopsis thaliana'', the thale cress, mouse-ear cress or arabidopsis, is a small flowering plant native to Eurasia and Africa. ''A. thaliana'' is considered a weed; it is found along the shoulders of roads and in disturbed land. A winter a ...

''. He was responsible for pioneering research in the genetic dissection of

plant embryogenesis Plant embryonic development, also plant embryogenesis is a process that occurs after the fertilization of an ovule to produce a fully developed plant embryo. This is a pertinent stage in the plant life cycle that is followed by dormancy and germina ...

. Using the genetically-tractable plant ''

'' he conducted the first forward genetic screen (using mutagenesis with 0.3%

ethyl methane sulfonate Ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) is a mutagenic, teratogenic, and carcinogenic organic compound with formula C3H8SO3. It produces random mutations in genetic material by nucleotide substitution; particularly through G:C to A:T transitions induced b ...

(EMS)) looking for embryonic defects. His laboratory discovered and characterized the protein KNOLLE, which is required for

cytokinesis Cytokinesis () is the part of the cell division process during which the cytoplasm of a single eukaryotic cell divides into two daughter cells. Cytoplasmic division begins during or after the late stages of nuclear division in mitosis and meios ...

and was the first protein known to exclusively target the

cell plate image:Phragmoplast.png, 300px, Phragmoplast and cell plate formation in a plant cell during cytokinesis. Left side: Phragmoplast forms and cell plate starts to assemble in the center of the cell. Towards the right: Phragmoplast enlarges in a donut ...

in plant cells. Jürgens also worked extensively on the

ARF ARF may refer to: Organizations * Advertising Research Foundation * Animal Rescue Foundation * Armenian Revolutionary Federation * ASEAN Regional Forum People * Cahit Arf (1910–1997), Turkish mathematician Science, medicine, and mathematics * ...

GEF Gef ( ), also referred to as the Talking Mongoose or the Dalby Spook, was the name given to an allegedly talking mongoose which was claimed to inhabit a farmhouse owned by the Irving family. The Irvings' farm was located at Cashen's Gap near ...

GNOM. Both ''knolle'' and ''gnom'' were first discovered in his embryonic mutant

screens Screen or Screens may refer to: Arts * Screen printing (also called ''silkscreening''), a method of printing * Big screen, a nickname associated with the motion picture industry * Split screen (filmmaking), a film composition paradigm in which m ...

Prizes and awards

Jürgens won the

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (german: link=no, Förderpreis für deutsche Wissenschaftler im Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Programm der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft), in short Leibniz Prize, is awarded by the German Research Foundation to ...

(the highest research award in Germany) in 1995.

References

External links

ZMBP , Universität Tübingen
— Website of the Zentrum für Molekularbiologie der Pflanzen (Center for Plant Molecular Biology) where Jürgens works {{DEFAULTSORT:Jurgens, Gerd 1949 births Living people 21st-century German biologists Academic staff of the University of Tübingen University of Freiburg alumni 20th-century German biologists Max Planck Institute directors

Research

Prizes and awards

References

Further reading

External links