Christiane (Janni) Nüsslein-Volhard (; born 20 October 1942) is a German developmental biologist and a 1995

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, acco ...

laureate. She is the only woman from Germany to have received a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

in the sciences. Nüsslein-Volhard earned her PhD in 1974 from the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

, where she studied protein-DNA interaction. She won the

Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the Lasker Award, prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Phys ...

in 1991 and the

in 1995, together with

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

and Edward B. Lewis, for their research on the genetic control of

embryo An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for 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 sp ...

nic

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped * Photographic development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development hell, when a proje ...

Early life and education

Nüsslein-Volhard was born in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

on 20 October 1942, the second of five children to Rolf Volhard, an architect, and Brigitte Haas Volhard, a nursery school teacher. She has four siblings: three sisters and one brother. She grew up and went to school in south

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, where she was exposed to art and music and thus was "trained in looking at things and recognizing things".An interview with Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
, 2017 Her great-grandfather was the chemist Jacob Volhard, and her grandfather was the known internist Franz Volhard. She is also the aunt of the Nobel laureate in chemistry

Benjamin List Benjamin List (; born 11 January 1968) is a German chemist who is one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and professor of organic chemistry at the University of Cologne. He co-developed organocatalysis, a method of acc ...

. After the

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

in 1962, she briefly considered pursuing medicine, but dropped the idea after doing a month’s nursing course in a hospital. Instead, she opted to study biology at

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

. In 1964 Nüsslein-Volhard left Frankfurt for the

, to start a new course in biochemistry. She originally wanted to do behavioral biology, "but then somehow I ended up in biochemistry (...) and molecular genetics because at the time this was the most modern aspect, and I was ambitious — I wanted to go where the leaders were. The old-fashioned botanists and zoologists were such dull people— there was nothing interesting there." She received a diploma in biochemistry in 1969 and earned a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1974 for research into protein–DNA interactions and the binding of

RNA polymerase In molecular biology, RNA polymerase (abbreviated RNAP or RNApol), or more specifically DNA-directed/dependent RNA polymerase (DdRP), is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reactions that synthesize RNA from a DNA template. Using the e ...

in ''

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...

''.

Career

In 1975, Nüsslein-Volhard became a postdoctoral researcher in Walter Gehring´s laboratory at the Biozentrum, University of Basel. She was a specialist in the developmental biology of ''

Drosophila melanogaster ''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (an insect of the Order (biology), 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", "pomace fly" ...

'' (fruit fly) supported by a long-term fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). In 1977, she continued in the laboratory of Klaus Sander at

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

, who was an expert in embryonic patterning. In 1978, she set up her own lab in the newly founded European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg with

, whom she had met in Basel. Over the next three years they examined about 20,000 mutated fly families, collected about 600 mutants with an altered body pattern and found that out of the approximately 5,000 essential genes only 120 were essential for early development. In October 1980, they published the mere 15 genes controlling the segmented pattern of the Drosophila larva. In 1981, Nüsslein-Volhard moved to the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tübingen. From 1984 until her retirement in 2014, she was the director of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen and also led its genetics department. After 1984, she launched work on the

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 ...

of vertebrates, using the zebrafish (

Danio rerio The zebrafish (''Danio rerio'') is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Danionidae of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio (a ...

) as her research model. In 2001, she became a member of the ''Nationaler Ethikrat'' (National Ethics Council of Germany) for the

ethical Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied e ...

assessment of new developments in the

life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...

and their influence on the individual and society. Her primer for the lay-reader, ''Coming to Life: How Genes Drive Development'', was published in April 2006. In 2004, she started the Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Foundation (''Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Stiftung'') which aids promising young female German scientists with children. The foundation's main focus is to facilitate childcare as a supplement to existing stipends and day care.

Research

During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, little was known about the genetic and molecular mechanisms by which multicellular organisms develop from single cells to morphologically complex forms during

embryogenesis An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for 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 ...

. Nüsslein-Volhard and Wieschaus identified genes involved in embryonic development by a series of genetic screens, generating random

mutations In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mitosi ...

in fruit flies using ethyl methanesulfonate. Some of these mutations affected genes involved in the development of the embryo. They took advantage of the segmented form of ''Drosophila'' larvae to address the logic of the genes controlling development. They looked at the pattern of segments and denticles in each mutant under the microscope, and were therefore able to work out that particular genes were involved in different processes during development based on their differing mutant phenotypes (such as fewer segments, gaps in the normal segment pattern, and alterations in the patterns of denticles on the segments). Many of these genes were given descriptive names based on the appearance of the mutant larvae, such as ''hedgehog'', '' gurken'' (German: "cucumbers"), and '' Krüppel'' ("cripple"). Later, researchers Pavel Tomancal, Amy Beaton, et al., identified exactly which gene had been affected by each mutation, thereby identifying a set of genes crucial for Drosophila embryogenesis. The subsequent study of these mutants and their interactions led to important new insights into early ''Drosophila'' development, especially the mechanisms that underlie the step-wise development of body segments. These experiments are not only distinguished by their sheer scale (with the methods available at the time, they involved an enormous workload), but more importantly by their significance for organisms other than fruit flies. Her findings led to important realizations about evolution – for example, that protostomes and deuterostomes are likely to have had a relatively well-developed

common ancestor Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. According to modern evolutionary biology, all living beings could be descendants of a unique ancestor commonl ...

with a much more complex body plan than had been conventionally thought. Additionally, they greatly increased our understanding of the regulation of transcription, as well as cell fate during development. Nüsslein-Volhard is associated with the discovery of '' Toll'', which led to the identification of

toll-like receptor Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a class of proteins that play a key role in the innate immune system. They are single-pass membrane protein, single-spanning receptor (biochemistry), receptors usually expressed on sentinel cells such as macrophages ...

s. , Nüsslein-Volhard has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

of 104 according to

Scopus Scopus is a scientific abstract and citation database, launched by the academic publisher Elsevier as a competitor to older Web of Science in 2004. The ensuing competition between the two databases has been characterized as "intense" and is c ...

Personal life

Nüsslein-Volhard married in the mid-1960s while studying at the

, but divorced soon afterward and did not have any children. She lives in Bebenhausen, Germany. She has said that she loves to sing, play the flute and do chamber music. She published a cookbook in 2006.

Awards and honors

*1986: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bud ...

*1986: Franz Vogt Award of the University of Giessen * 1991:

* 1991: Keith R. Porter Lecture * 1992: Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize * 1992:

Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine Established in 1986, the Louis-Jeantet Prizes are funded by the Louis-Jeantet Foundation, ''Fondation Louis-Jeantet'' and awarded each year to experienced researchers who have distinguished themselves in the field of biomedical research in one ...

* 1992:

Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers who have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemist ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

* 1992: Otto Warburg Medal of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology * 1992: Otto Bayer Award * 1993: Sir Hans Krebs Medal from the Federation of European Biochemical Societies * 1993: Ernst Schering Prize * 1994: Merit Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany * 1995:

* 1996: Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg * 1997: Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts * 2005: Grand Merit Cross with Star and Sash of the Federal Republic of Germany (''Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband'') * 2007: German Founder Award of the Federation of German Foundations * 2009:

Austrian Decoration for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art () is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Orders, decorations, and medals of Austria, Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian Decoration for Science a ...

* 2013–2021: Chancellor of the order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts * 2014: Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art * 2019: Schiller Prize of the City of Marbach * The asteroid 15811 Nüsslein-Volhard is named in her honour

Honorary degrees

Nüsslein-Volhard has been awarded

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

s by the following Universities:

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

, Princeton, Rockefeller,

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

(June 2005),

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

(June 2011),

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

(July 2012). * 1991: Honorary doctorate from the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of 39,769 students, a ...

* 1991: Honorary doctorate from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

* 1993: Honorary doctorate from the

* 1993: Honorary doctorate from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

* 2001: Honorary doctorate from

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and pro ...

* 2002: Honorary doctorate from

* 2005: Honorary doctorate from

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

* 2007: Honorary doctorate from

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...

* 2008: Mercator Professorship,

University of Duisburg-Essen The University of Duisburg-Essen () is a public research university in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In the 2019 ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', the university was awarded 194th place in the world. It was originally ...

* 2011: Honorary doctorate from the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

* 2012: Honorary doctorate from the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

Memberships

* 1989: Founding member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

* 1989: Corresponding member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences * 1990: Corresponding member of North Rhine-Westphalia Academy for Sciences and Arts * 1990: Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS), London * 1990: Member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, 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 ...

, Washington * 1991: Member of the

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...

*1992: Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) 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, and other ...

*1995: Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

* 2001–2006: Member of the National Ethics Council of the Federal Government ( German Ethics Council) * Member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

* Member of the Scientific Committee of the Ingrid zu Solms Foundation * Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization

Notes

References

External links

* including the Nobel Lecture on 8 December 1995 ''The Identification of Genes Controlling Development in Flies and Fishes'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Nusslein-Volhard, Christiane 1942 births Living people German biochemists German geneticists German physiologists German embryologists German women biochemists German women biologists Women geneticists Women medical researchers Women physiologists Women Nobel laureates German Nobel laureates Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the AACR Academy Foreign members of the Royal Society Max Planck Society people Members of Academia Europaea Members of the French Academy of Sciences Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art Goethe University Frankfurt alumni Academic staff of the University of Duisburg-Essen University of Tübingen alumni Academic staff of the University of Tübingen Scientists from Magdeburg 20th-century German women scientists 21st-century German women scientists 20th-century German biologists 21st-century German biologists Members of the American Philosophical Society Max Planck Institute directors