Walter Jakob Gehring | |
|---|---|
 Walter Jakob Gehring (2014) | |
| Born | (1939-03-20)20 March 1939 Zürich, Switzerland |
| Died | 29 May 2014(2014-05-29) (aged 75) Basel, Switzerland |
| Known for | Discovering the homeobox (DNA segment) |
| Awards | Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (1987)[1] |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Developmental Biologist |
| Institutions | University of Zurich,Yale Medical School,Yale University,Biozentrum University of Basel |
Walter Jakob Gehring (20 March 1939[2] – 29 May 2014[3])[4] was a Swiss developmental biologist who was a professor at theBiozentrum Basel of theUniversity of Basel, Switzerland. He obtained his PhD at the University of Zurich in 1965 and after two years as a research assistant ofErnst Hadorn he joinedAlan Garen's group atYale University in New Haven as a postdoctoral fellow.[5]
In 1969 he was appointed associate professor atYale Medical School[6] and 1972 returned to Switzerland to become a professor ofdevelopmental biology andgenetics at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. He was Secretary General of theEuropean Molecular Biology Organization,[7] President of theInternational Society of Developmental Biologists, and Foreign Member of the national academies of the USA, Great Britain,[8] France, Germany and Sweden.
Gehring was mainly involved in studies ofDrosophila genetics and development, particularly in the analysis ofcell determination in theembryo and transdetermination ofimaginal discs. He performed studies of theheat shock genes, varioustransposons, and thehomeotic genes which are involved in the genetic control of development.
In 1983 Gehring and his collaborators (William McGinnis,Michael S. Levine, Ernst Hafen, Richard Garber, Atsushi Kuroiwa, Johannes Wirz), discovered thehomeobox, a DNA segment characteristic for homeotic genes which is not only present inarthropods and their ancestors, but also invertebrates including man.[9]
Gehring was also involved in the development and application ofenhancer trapping methods. He and his collaborators identifiedPAX6 as a master control gene for eye development, which led to a new theory about the monophyletic origin of the eyes in evolution.[10]
