Jozef Schell

Stefaan Jozef ( Jeff ) Schell ( born July 20, 1935 in Antwerp, † 17 April 2003 in Brussels) was a Belgian molecular biologist.

Schell studied in Ghent Zoology and Microbiology. From 1967 to 1995 he was professor at Ghent University, where he founded the "Laboratory of General Genetics ". From 1978 to 2000 he was Director and Head of the Department " Molecular Basis of Plant Breeding " at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne. Since 1980, he was also an honorary professor at the University of Cologne and since 1994 professor at the Collège de France in Paris. He has received numerous awards, including the Wolf Prize in Agricultural Science in 1990, the Prix Charles -Léopold Mayer 1990, the Max Planck Research Award in 1992 and the Japan Prize in 1998 along with Marc van Montagu.

Schell was one of the pioneers of green genetic engineering. In his work on the interactions of plants and soil bacteria in nitrogen fixation and the development of plant tumors showed that some bacteria can transfer genes to plants. The Ti plasmid of the soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens was Schell's investigations on the basis of the first and continues to be very important vector ( gene shuttle ) for the production of transgenic plants. With this technique succeeded in 1983 for the first time the production of genetically modified tobacco plants that were resistant to the antibiotic kanamycin.