Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch | |
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| Born | Salome Gluecksohn (1907-10-06)October 6, 1907 |
| Died | November 7, 2007(2007-11-07) (aged 100) |
| Education | University of Freiburg |
| Known for | Tracing the effects of the muantBrachyury gene of the mouse to the notochord |
| Spouses | Rudolph Schoenheimer (died 1941), Heinrich Waelsch (married 1943) |
| Children | Two |
| Awards | Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Developmental genetics |
| Institutions | University of Freiburg,Columbia University,Albert Einstein College of Medicine |
Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch (October 6, 1907 – November 7, 2007) was aGerman-bornU.S.geneticist and co-founder of the field ofdevelopmental genetics,[1] which investigates the genetic mechanisms of development.[2]
Gluecksohn-Waelsch was born inDanzig,Germany to Nadia and Ilya Gluecksohn. She grew up in Germany between World War I and II, where her family faced hardships including her father's death in the1918 influenza epidemic, severe post-war inflation, and intense anti-Semitic sentiment.[2][3]
She studiedchemistry andzoology inKönigsberg andBerlin before she joinedSpemann's laboratory at theUniversity of Freiburg in 1928. She commented on both Spemann's nationalist tendencies and prejudice against women scientists; prejudices she faced as a Jewish woman limited her career options in Germany.[2][3] Salome started to quietly disagree with Spemann as he and his peers believed adamantly that there was no overlap in genetics and embryonic development. However, it would have not been wise to go against her professor at that time so she kept quiet until later on in her professional career.[4] In 1932 she received herdoctorate from the University of Freiburg[4] for her work on the embryological limb development of aquaticsalamanders.[5] In the same year she married the biochemistRudolph Schönheimer, with whom she escaped fromNazi Germany in 1933.[3]
She went on to become a lecturer atColumbia University in 1936, bringing embryological acumen toLeslie C. Dunn's genetics laboratory, where she remained for 17 years.[3] Gluecksohn-Waelsch attempted to findmutations that affected early development and discover the processes that these genes affected.
In 1938, she acquiredUS citizenship, and after Schönheimer's death in 1941 she married the neurochemistHeinrich Waelsch in 1943, with whom she had two children.[3]
Columbia University's policies would not allow her a faculty position, even after many productive years of research.[2] She left Columbia University in 1953 to commence a professorship inanatomy at the newly foundedAlbert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM), where she became a full professor in 1958 and held the chair of molecular genetics from 1963 to 1976.[2] She receivedemeritus status in 1978, but continued researching actively for many more years, publishing and participating in scientific conferences until the 1990s.
She died a month after her 100th birthday inNew York City.[6]
Gluecksohn-Waelsch's scientific career started when L.C. Dunn hired her to his project involving breeding mice with a 'T locus' mutation.[4] She presented her work showing that the T-locus product acted as an inducer ofmesoderm and axial development.[4] Gluecksohn-Waelsch worked on the genetics ofdifferentiation, the process by which unspecified cells from a fertilized egg adopt their various specific fates in development. As Gluecksohn-Waelsch combined the embryological expertise she had acquired at Spemann's lab with methods of classical mouse genetics, she is considered the founder ofmammalian developmental genetics.[7] She co-authored over 100 publications on developmental genetics.
Her research showed that mutations in theBrachyurygene of the mouse caused the aberrant development of the posterior portion of theembryo and she traced the effects of this mutant gene to thenotochord, which normally patterns the dorsal-ventral axis.
From 1968 to 1983 she collaborated withCarl Ferdinand Cori, winner of the 1947Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[8]
Gluecksohn-Waelsch's scientific work was honored late in life. In 1979, she became a member of theNational Academy of Sciences. She was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1980.[9] In 1982 the University of Freiburg presented her with the "Goldene Promotion", and in 1993 American presidentBill Clinton presented her with theNational Medal of Science. She became an overseas member of theRoyal Society in 1995[10] and was awarded theThomas Hunt Morgan Medal for "a lifetime contribution to the science of genetics" in 1999.
In 2010, theFreiburg-basedSpemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine (SGBM) and the AECOM Department of Genetics introduced the Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch Prize for the best dissertation.[11]
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