The people behind the papers - Eric Wieschaus

Classical mutagenesis studies in Drosophila identified three graded maternally supplied factors that serve as the initial 'input signal' for anterior-posterior patterning programmes. However, the relative contributions of these factors and how they interact remain unclear. To address this, Eric Wieschaus modulated the gradients of these three factors to disentangle the roles they each play in anterior-posterior patterning. To find out more about this research and how this story developed, we talked to sole author Eric Wieschaus, 1995 Nobel Laureate for Medicine and Emeritus EB and Sons Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA.