Eric Francis Wieschaus (born June 8, 1947 in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...

) is an American evolutionary developmental biologist and 1995 Nobel Prize-winner.

Early life

Born in

, he attended John Carroll Catholic High School in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% f ...

before attending the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main c ...

for his undergraduate studies (B.S., biology), and

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

(Ph.D., biology) for his graduate work.

Scientific career

In 1978, he moved to his first independent job, at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

and moved from Heidelberg to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in 1981. Much of his research has focused on

embryogenesis An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

in the fruit fly ''

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 ...

'', 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 Oogenesis, ovogenesis, or oögenesis is the differentiation of the ovum (egg cell) into a cell competent to further develop when fertilized. It is developed from the primary oocyte by maturation. Oogenesis is initiated in the embryonic stage. ...

. 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. Saturation of all the possible mutations on each chromosome by random events to test embryonic lethality was done by Eric Wieschaus. This body of science eventually was termed the '' Heidelberg screen''. In 1995, he was awarded the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accordi ...

with

Edward B. Lewis Edward Butts Lewis (May 20, 1918 – July 21, 2004) was an American geneticist, a corecipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He helped to found the field of evolutionary developmental biology. Early life Lewis was born in Wi ...

and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard as co-recipients, for their work revealing the genetic control of embryonic development. As of 2018, Wieschaus is the Squibb Professor in

Molecular Biology 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 phys ...

at Princeton. He was formerly Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry at the

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) was a state-run health sciences institution of New Jersey, United States. It was founded as the Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry in 1954, and by the 1980s was both a majo ...

–

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is a medical school of Rutgers University. It is one of the two graduate medical schools of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, together with New Jersey Medical School, and is closely aligned with R ...

Personal life

He has three daughters and is married to molecular biologist Gertrud Schüpbach, who is also a professor of

, working on ''Drosophila'' oogenesis. Wieschaus is an atheist and is one of the 77 Nobel Laureates who signed the 2007 petition to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act.

Awards and honors

* Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

, elected 1993 * Member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

, elected 1994 *

, 1995 * Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

, elected 1998 * Mendel Medal of the Genetics Society, 1999

References

External links

Eric Wieschaus's Short Talk: "Finding Genes that Control Development"
* including the Nobel Lecture on December 8, 1995 ''From Molecular Patterns to Morphogenesis: The Lessons from Drosophila''
American Society for Cell Biology
excellent profile
The Wieschaus labA Conversation with Eric F. Wieschaus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wieschaus, Eric F. 1947 births Living people American geneticists American Nobel laureates American atheists Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Notre Dame College of Arts and Letters alumni Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Duke University faculty Princeton University faculty People from South Bend, Indiana Howard Hughes Medical Investigators