Three Share Nobel For Genetic Research Caltech Biologist Explained Genes’ Control Of Organ Growth

A Caltech biologist who was the first to explain how genes control the development of organs during the early growth of an embryo will share the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with researchers from Princeton University and Germany who followed up on his pioneering discovery.

Edward B. Lewis, 77, of the California Institute of Technology, Eric F. Wieschaus, 48, of Princeton, and Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard, 52, of the Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tubingen, Germany, received the award for explaining how an essentially shapeless fertilized egg develops into an organism with a front and back, head and feet, and right and left sides.

Their discoveries “really set the agenda” for what has become perhaps the hottest area of research in biology - how genes determine the ultimate shape of humans, according to molecular biologist Ian Duncan of Washington University in St. Louis. “There has been a revolution in developmental biology that is directly attributable to their work.”

Although all three worked in fruit flies, they “have achieved a break-through that will help explain congenital malformations in man” as well, according to the Nobel citation released Monday in Stockholm, Sweden. “It is likely that mutations (in the genes they discovered) are responsible for some of the early, spontaneous abortions in (humans) and for some of the about 40 percent of the congenital malformations that develop due to unknown reasons.”

All three expressed surprise and excitement at the announcement of the prize.

Lewis, who was in Ascona, Switzerland, to deliver a scientific lecture Tuesday, said he was just getting out of a taxicab and still suffering from jet lag when he learned of the award. “As you can imagine, I’m overwhelmed. It’s quite a shock,” he said in a statement released by Caltech. “It’s very nice, but actually what is more exciting is the science … It’s much more exciting to get these discoveries than to win prizes.”

Wieschaus said he was awakened Monday morning by a phone call from a man with a Swedish accent. “I thought he probably had a wrong number,” he told a news conference. “Maybe he did, but they are not going to take it back.”

Nuesslein-Volhard celebrated the anouncement Monday with champagne, buttered pretzels and bouquets from her colleagues. “I am already smiling like crazy,” she told reporters. “At the moment, I feel like I am in an extraordinary state.” She is the first German woman to win a Nobel prize.

The trio will share a $1 million prize to be awarded in Stockholm Dec. 10.