Lewis Wolpert
| Lewis Wolpert | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
19 October 1929 South Africa |
| Residence | London |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | BSc, PhD |
| Alma mater |
University of Witwatersrand Imperial College London King's College London |
| Doctoral students | Jim Smith |
| Known for | positional-value concept in biological development |
| Notable awards |
Hamburger prize for education – American Soc.Dev.Biol. Michael Faraday Prize (2000) |
| Children | Daniel Mark Wolpert |
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Website www |
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Lewis Wolpert CBE FRS FRSL FMedSci (born 19 October 1929) is South African-born British developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster. Wolpert is recognized for his work on the intracellular positional information that guides cellular development. In addition, he has published several popular science books.
Wolpert was born into a South African Jewish family. He was educated at the University of Witwatersrand (BSc), at Imperial College London, and at King's College London (PhD). As of 2010[update] he holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Biology as applied to Medicine in the Department of Anatomy and developmental biology at University College London.
Biologists recognise Wolpert for elaborating and championing the ideas of positional information and positional value: molecular signals and internal cellular responses to them that enable cells to do the right thing in the right place during embryonic development. The essence of these concepts is that there is a dedicated set of molecules for spatial co-ordination of cells, identical across many species and across different developmental stages and tissues. The discovery of Hox gene codes in flies and vertebrates has largely vindicated Wolpert's positional-value concept, while identification of growth-factor morphogens in many species has supported the concept of positional information.
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