Jean-Jacques Weigle (9 July 1901 – 28 December 1968) was a
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
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* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
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*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
molecular biologist
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...
at
Caltech
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
and formerly a
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
at the
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centu ...
from 1931 to 1948. He is known for his major contributions on field of
bacteriophage λ research, focused on the interactions between those viruses and their ''
E. coli
''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escher ...
'' hosts.
Biography
Jean Weigle was born in
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
, Switzerland, where he obtained his PhD in physics in 1923, from the University of Geneva.
He married Ruth Juliette Falk, a widow.
He died in
Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
I ...
, after suffering a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
in 1968.
Research
As a physicist he was awarded for his research on
x-ray diffraction
X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles ...
to the study of
crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...
structure; the effects of temperature on this diffraction; the diffraction of light by
ultrasonics
Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies fr ...
.
He was working as professor of Physics at the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...
in the 1920s.
At the University of Geneva he became director of the Institute of Physics in 1931. He developed the first
electron microscope
An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a hi ...
made in Switzerland, an important factor for the studies of molecular biology leading to creation in 1964 of the Institute of Molecular Biology (MOLBIO) in Geneva by
Eduard Kellenberger and others.
After suffering his first heart attack in 1946 he emigrated to the US in 1948, resigned from the faculty of the University of Geneva and went to Caltech in Pasadena, California.
There he turned to biology and worked in the
Phage group of
Max Delbrück
Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück (; September 4, 1906 – March 9, 1981) was a German–American biophysicist who participated in launching the molecular biology research program in the late 1930s. He stimulated physical science, physical scientist ...
,
Seymour Benzer
Seymour Benzer (October 15, 1921 – November 30, 2007) was an American physicist, molecular biologist and behavioral geneticist. His career began during the molecular biology revolution of the 1950s, and he eventually rose to prominence in the ...
,
Elie Wollman, and
Gunther Stent
Gunther S. Stent (28 March 1924 – 12 June 2008) was Graduate Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. One of the early bacteriophage biologists, he was known also for his studies on the metabolism of bacter ...
. While at Caltech, Weigle worked with other notable molecular biologists, including
George Streisinger
George Streisinger (December 27, 1927 – August 11, 1984) was an American molecular biologist and co-founder of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Oregon. He was the first person to clone a vertebrate, cloning zebrafish in hi ...
(whom Weigle mentored as a postdoctoral researcher),
Giuseppe Bertani
Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph,
from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף.
It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it.
The feminine form of the name is Giusep ...
, and
Nobel laureate
Werner Arber
Werner Arber (born 3 June 1929 in Gränichen, Aargau) is a Swiss microbiologist and geneticist. Along with American researchers Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans, Werner Arber shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the disco ...
.
In 1952,
Salvador Luria
Salvador Edward Luria (August 13, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an Italian microbiologist, later a naturalized U.S. citizen. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969, with Max Delbrück and Alfred Hershey, for their discoveries ...
had discovered the phenomenon of "
restriction modification" (the modification of phage growing within an infected bacterium, so that upon their release and re-infection of a related bacterium the phage's growth is restricted), (also described in Luria's autobiography, pgs. 45 and 99). Work by Jean Weigle and Giuseppe Bertani at almost the same time,
[BERTANI G, WEIGLE JJ. Host controlled variation in bacterial viruses. J Bacteriol. 1953 Feb;65(2):113-21. ] and later work by others clarified the basis for this phenomenon. They showed that restriction was actually due to attack by specific bacterial enzymes on the modified phage's DNA. This work led to the discovery of the class of enzymes now known as "
restriction enzyme
A restriction enzyme, restriction endonuclease, REase, ENase or'' restrictase '' is an enzyme that cleaves DNA into fragments at or near specific recognition sites within molecules known as restriction sites. Restriction enzymes are one class o ...
s." These enzymes allowed controlled manipulation of DNA in the laboratory, thus providing the foundation for the development of genetic engineering.
He is most noted for his demonstration, with
Matthew Meselson
Matthew Stanley Meselson (born May 24, 1930) is a geneticist and molecular biologist currently at Harvard University, known for his demonstration, with Franklin Stahl, of semi-conservative DNA replication. After completing his Ph.D. under Linus ...
, of Caltech and
Grete Kellenberger
Grete or Grethe is a feminine given name, a derivate of Margaret. It is most often used in Scandinavia (not including Sweden), Estonia, and German-speaking Europe.
People Given name
* Grete Berget (1954–2017), Norwegian politician
* Grete Da ...
of Geneva, that
genetic recombination
Genetic recombination (also known as genetic reshuffling) is the exchange of genetic material between different organisms which leads to production of offspring with combinations of traits that differ from those found in either parent. In eukaryo ...
involves actual breakage and reunion of
DNA molecules. He created the classic induction of a
lysogen
A lysogen or lysogenic bacterium is a bacterial cell which can produce and transfer the ability to produce a phage. A prophage is either integrated into the host bacteria's chromosome or more rarely exists as a stable plasmid within the host cell ...
, which involved irradiating the infected cells with
ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...
light. He demonstrated through his classical experiments the inducible nature of the
DNA repair
DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors such as radiation can cause DNA dam ...
system.
The induction of
DNA damage-response genes in bacteria has come to be known as the
SOS response
The SOS response is a global response to DNA damage in which the cell cycle is arrested and DNA repair and mutagenesis is induced. The system involves the RecA protein ( Rad51 in eukaryotes). The RecA protein, stimulated by single-stranded DNA, ...
. This response includes DNA damage inducible mutagenesis
[Weigle JJ. Induction of Mutations in a Bacterial Virus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1953 Jul;39(7):628-36. ] (now referred to as Weigle mutagenesis in his honor) and inducible DNA repair following DNA damage
(termed Weigle reactivation).
Selected works
*Weigle, J. J., and M. Delbrück. 1951. "Mutual exclusion between an infecting phage and a carried phage". ''J. Bacteriol.'' 62:301-318.
*Weigle, J. J. (1953). "Induction of Mutations in a Bacterial Virus". ''Proc Natl Acad Sci USA'' 39 (7):628-63
PDF file
Legacy
"So Weigle was the pioneer of the whole lambda genetics business, which is now a real industrial operation".
"The interest of physical scientists such Max Delbrück and Jean Weigle in the 20th Century had a revolutionizing effect on biology".
In his honor the institutions where he worked created the Weigle Memorial Service and the Weigle Memorial Lecture at Caltech, and several friends established the Jean Weigle Memorial Fund.
The Weigle lecture honors his memory, since he was instrumental for the development of Molecular Biology in Geneva.
References
External links
Weigle lecturesHistory of MOLBIO at Geneva University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weigle, Jean
1901 births
1968 deaths
Molecular biologists
Mutagenesis
Swiss physicists
University of Pittsburgh
University of Geneva alumni
University of Geneva faculty
Scientists from Geneva
California Institute of Technology faculty
Phage workers
Swiss biologists
20th-century biologists