Peter Hausen was a German developmental biologist who spent most of his career at the

Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology The Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology Tübingen was located in Tübingen, Germany; it was founded as Max Planck Institute for Virus Research in 1954 as an offshoot of the Tübingen-based Max Planck Institute for Biology. From 1984 to 2 ...

, where he was appointed Director of the Department of Cell Biology in 1973. Hausen died in 2012.

Education and academic career

Hausen received his Ph.D. in 1961, supervised by Werner Scäfer at what was then the Max Planck Institute for Virology. After a brief stay as a visiting scientist at the

Weizmann Institute The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli univ ...

in Israel, he returned to Germany to join the

Max Planck Institute for Biology The Max Planck Institute for Biology is located in Tübingen, Germany, and has been re-established in January 2022. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the predecessor organization of the Max Planck Society, established various natural science research ...

. He then moved back to MPI for Virology (which later changed its name and research focus to

) and became the Director of the Department of Cell Biology in 1973. He was also active in the establishment of the

Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology The Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology is located on Beutenberg Campus in Jena, Germany. It was founded in March 1996 and is one of 80 institutes of the Max Planck Society (Max Planck Gesellschaft). Chemical ecology examines the role of che ...

Research

Hausen's research focused on

developmental biology Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of Regeneration (biology), regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and di ...

. In the course of his work on

cellular differentiation Cellular differentiation is the process in which a stem cell alters from one type to a differentiated one. Usually, the cell changes to a more specialized type. Differentiation happens multiple times during the development of a multicellular ...

and the

regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...

transcription Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...

eukaryote Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bacte ...

s, his research group discovered ribonuclease H, a family of

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

s that selectively degrades the

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...

component of mixed

/ DNA duplexes. He is especially well recognized for studies of the development of the

model organism A model organism (often shortened to model) is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workin ...

Xenopus laevis The African clawed frog (''Xenopus laevis'', also known as the xenopus, African clawed toad, African claw-toed frog or the ''platanna'') is a species of African aquatic frog of the family Pipidae. Its name is derived from the three short claws ...

'' (African clawed frog). With Metta Riebesell, he coauthored a widely used and well-reviewed reference work on the topic, ''The early development of Xenopus laevis. An atlas of the histology.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hausen, Peter 1935 births 2012 deaths 20th-century German biologists Developmental biologists