Walter Jakob Gehring

{{Short description|Swiss scientist (1939–2014)}}

{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Walter Jakob Gehring

|image = Walter_Jakob Gehring 2014.jpg

|caption = Walter Jakob Gehring (2014)

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1939|3|20|df=y}}

|birth_place = Zürich, Switzerland

|death_date = {{death date and age|2014|5|29|1939|3|20|df=y}}

|death_place = Basel, Switzerland

|field = Developmental Biologist

|work_institutions = University of Zurich, Yale Medical School, Yale University, Biozentrum University of Basel

|awards = Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (1987){{Cite web|url=https://www.jeantet.ch/en/prix-louis-jeantet/laureats/1987-en |title=Louis-Jeantet Prize, Year: 1987}}

|known_for = Discovering the homeobox (DNA segment)

}}

Walter Jakob Gehring (20 March 1939{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7g1LAQAAIAAJ&q=Walter+Jakob+Gehring+20+March+1939 | title=Who's who in Science and Engineering| year=2008| isbn=9780837957685| last1=Who| first1=Marquis Who's| publisher=Marquis Who's Who}} – 29 May 2014{{Cite journal | doi=10.1016/j.devcel.2014.07.011| pmid=25215373| title=Walter Jakob Gehring (1939–2014)| journal=Developmental Cell| volume=30| issue=2| pages=120–122| year=2014| last1=Affolter| first1=Markus| last2=Müller| first2=Martin| doi-access=free}}){{cite web | url=https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/walter-jakob-gehring-1939-2014 | title=Walter Jakob Gehring (1939–2014) | the Embryo Project Encyclopedia}} was a Swiss developmental biologist who was a professor at the Biozentrum Basel of the University of Basel, Switzerland. He obtained his PhD at the University of Zurich in 1965 and after two years as a research assistant of Ernst Hadorn he joined Alan Garen's group at Yale University in New Haven as a postdoctoral fellow.{{cite journal |title=Imaginal Disc Abnormalities in Lethal Mutants of Drosophila | pmc=389475 | pmid=5002822 | volume=68 | issue=10 | year=1971 | journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. | pages=2594–8 | last1 = Shearn | first1 = A | last2 = Rice | first2 = T | last3 = Garen | first3 = A | last4 = Gehring | first4 = W | doi=10.1073/pnas.68.10.2594| bibcode=1971PNAS...68.2594S | doi-access=free }}

In 1969 he was appointed associate professor at Yale Medical School{{cite web |url=http://materiais.dbio.uevora.pt/MA/Artigos/Gehring-Eye_Development_and_the_Evolution_of_Eyes_and_Photoreceptors.pdf |title=New Perspectives on Eye Development and the Evolution of Eyes and Photoreceptors |publisher=dbio.uevora.pt/ |access-date=3 June 2014}} and 1972 returned to Switzerland to become a professor of developmental biology and genetics at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. He was Secretary General of the European Molecular Biology Organization,{{cite web |url=http://www.embo.org/documents/news/facts_figures/EMBO_annual_report_2001.pdf |title=EMBO & EMBC annual report 2001 |publisher=embo.org/ |access-date=3 June 2014}} President of the International Society of Developmental Biologists, and Foreign Member of the national academies of the USA, Great Britain,{{Cite journal|last1=Morata|first1=Ginés|last2=Affolter|first2=Markus|date=2021|title=Walter Jakob Gehring. 20 March 1939—29 May 2014|journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|volume=71|pages=197–212 |doi=10.1098/rsbm.2021.0011|s2cid=236457532|doi-access=free}} France, Germany and Sweden.

Gehring was mainly involved in studies of Drosophila genetics and development, particularly in the analysis of cell determination in the embryo and transdetermination of imaginal discs. He performed studies of the heat shock genes, various transposons, and the homeotic 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 the homeobox, a DNA segment characteristic for homeotic genes which is not only present in arthropods and their ancestors, but also in vertebrates including man.{{cite journal |title=A conserved DNA sequence in homoeotic genes of the Drosophila Antennapedia and bithorax complexes |volume=308 |issue=5958 |doi=10.1038/308428a0 |journal=Nature |pages=428–433|date=March 1984 |last1=Gehring |first1=W. J. |last2=Kuroiwa |first2=A. |last3=Hafen |first3=E. |last4=Levine |first4=M. S. |last5=McGinnis |first5=W. |bibcode=1984Natur.308..428M |pmid=6323992 |s2cid=4235713 }}

Gehring was also involved in the development and application of enhancer trapping methods. He and his collaborators identified PAX6 as a master control gene for eye development, which led to a new theory about the monophyletic origin of the eyes in evolution.{{cite journal |pmid=10461206 |title=Pax 6: mastering eye morphogenesis and eye evolution. |date= September 1999|volume=15 |issue=9 |journal=Trends Genet. |pages=371–7 | last1 = Gehring | first1 = WJ | last2 = Ikeo | first2 = K | doi=10.1016/s0168-9525(99)01776-x}}