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Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
(20 Oct 1942 - )
German developmental geneticist who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for research into the mechanisms of early embryonic development. She co-authored a paper in Nature (1980), with Eric Wieschaus, entitled 'Mutations Affecting Segment Number and Polarity in Drosophila,' that revolutionised the field of developmental genetics.
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Science Quotes by Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (3 quotes)
I immediately loved working with flies. They fascinated me, and followed me around in my dreams.
— Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
1995 Nobel Prize - Nobel Autobiography
In systemic searches for embryonic lethal mutants of Drosophila melanogaster we have identified 15 loci which when mutated alter the segmental patterns of the larva. These loci probably represent the majority of such genes in Drosophila. The phenotypes of the mutant embryos indicate that the process of segmentation involves at least three levels of spatial organization: the entire egg as developmental unit, a repeat unit with the length of two segments, and the individual segment.
[Co-author with American physiologist Eric Wieshaus (1947-)]
[Co-author with American physiologist Eric Wieshaus (1947-)]
— Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
'Mutations Affecting Segment Number and Polarity in Drosophila', Nature, 1980, 287, 795.
The three of us have worked on the development of the small and totally harmless fruit fly, Drosophila. This animal has been extremely cooperative in our hands - and has revealed to us some of its innermost secrets and tricks for developing from a single celled egg to a complex living being of great beauty and harmony. ... None of us expected that our work would be so successful or that our findings would ever have relevance to medicine.
— Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
Nobel Banquet Speech, 10 Dec 1995
See also:
- 20 Oct - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Nüsslein-Volhard's birth.
- Coming to Life: How Genes Drive Development, by Christiane Nusslein-Volhard. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
