Walter Jakob Gehring

Walter Jakob Gehring ( born March 20, 1939 in Zurich ) is a Swiss molecular and developmental biology.

Life

Since 1972 he is professor at the University of Basel. His research at the Biozentrum, University of Basel. He was Secretary General of the European Molecular Biology Organization ( EMBO) and is president of the International Society for Developmental Biologists. In 2000 he was awarded the Kyoto Prize and in 2002 the Balzan Prize. Since 2009 he is professor emeritus, but on a smaller scale research on the origins of eyes on. On 4 January 2010 Gehring was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Became known Gehring for the discovery of the molecular similarities of various homöotisches genes and the associated Homöoboxen with the hox genes contained therein. This gave decisive evidence of a common evolutionary origin, which is the control of embryonic development of all animals together. Furthermore Gehring discovered that the decisive control gene for eye development pax6 plays an evolutionarily conserved role in the development of the eye types of many different animals.

Since 1987 he has been an elected member of the Leopoldina.

Awards

Works

• Rüdiger Wehner with: zoology. 24 completely revised edition. Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, inter alia, ISBN 978-3-13-367424-9.
• How do genes control the development. The history of the Homeobox. Birkhäuser, Basel, inter alia, 2001, ISBN 3-7643-6039-9.