http://www.cdb.ucl.ac.uk/research/wolpert/

Professor Lewis Wolpert

Research

My model for pattern formation is based on cell acquiring positional identities and then interpreting their positional values according to their genetic constitution and developmental history. We have recently argued that diffusing morphogens cannot reliable specify position. We still do not know how position is specified and recorded. Another problem related to growth plates. Our limbs grow independently for more than ten years, yet our limbs are reliably of similar length. I am considering how this can occur. A major project is the fourth edition of Principles of Development

Profile

1950 B.Sc.(Engineering) University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,South Africa

1951 1952 Personal Assistant, Director, Building Research Institute, South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

1955 D.I.C. (Soil Mechanics) University of London, Imperial College

1961 Ph.D. University of London, King's college

1960 1964 Lecturer in Zoology, King's College, University of London

1964 1966 Reader in Zoology (Cell Biology),King's College, University of London

1965 European Editor, Journal of Theoretical Biology

1966 Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine at The Middlesex Hospital Medical School

1980 Fellow of the Royal Society

1985 Co Chief Editor, Journal of Theoretical Biology

1987 1992 President, British Society for Cell Biology

1990 C.B.E

1993 1998 Chairman, Committee on the Public Understanding of Science

1998 Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences

1999 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

2003 Hamburger prize for education – American Soc.Dev.Biol.

Media

1999 A living Hell - presenter 3 part series BBC TV@

1996 2003 A column in The Independent

Books

Wolpert, L.& Alison Richards (1988) A Passion for Science, Oxford University Press

Wolpert, L (1991) The Triumph of the Embryo,, Oxford University Press

Wolpert, L. (1992) The Unnatural Nature of Science, Faber, London

Wolpert, L. & Alison Richards (1997) Passionate Minds, Oxford University Press

Wolpert, L. (1999) Malignant Sadness. The Anatomy of Depression, Faber, London

Wolpert,L (2006) Six impossible things before breakfast - the evolutionary origins of belief Faber

Wolpert, L., Jessell,T, Lawrene,P, Meyerowitz,E, Robertson,E, and Smith,J. Principles of development 2007 3rd edition OUP

Publications

Wolpert, L. (1960) The mechanics and mechanism of cleavage. Int.Rev.Cytol.,10,163 216

Wolpert, L. & O'Neill, C.H. (1962) The dynamics of the membrane of

Amoeba proteus with labelled specific antibody.

Nature, 196, 1261 1266

Gustafson, T. & Wolpert, L. (1963) The cellular basis of morphogenesis and sea urchin development. Int.Rev.Cytol., 15, 139 214

Wolpert, L. (1969) Positional information and the spatial pattern of cellular differentiation. J.Theoret.Biol., 25, 1 47

325 36

Summerbell, D., Lewis, JH & Wolpert, L. (1973) Positional information in chick limb morphogenesis. Nature, 244, 492 6

Tickle, C., Summerbell, D. & Wolpert, L. (1975) Positional signalling and specification of digits in chick limb morphogenesis. Nature, 254, 199 202

Tickle, C., Alberts, B., Wolpert, L. & Lee, J. (1982) Local application of retinoic acid to the limb bond mimics the action of the polarizing region. Nature, 296, 564 565

Wolpert, L. & Hornbruch, A. (1987) Positional signalling and the development of the humerus in the chick limb bud. Development, 100, 333 338

Brown, N.A. & Wolpert, L. (1990) The development of handedness in left/right asymmetry. Development, 109 (1) 1 9

Kerszberg, M. & Wolpert, L. (1998) The origin of metazoa and the egg: a role for cell death. Journal of Theoretical Biology 193, 535 537

Wolpert, L. (1999) Is science dangerous? Nature, 398 ,281 282

Wolpert, L. (2001) Ethical link between IVF and stem-cell research. Nature, 413, 107-108

Bertocchini F, Skromne I, Wolpert L, Stern CD. 2004 Determination of embryonic polarity in a regulative system: evidence for endogenous inhibitors acting sequentially during primitive streak formation in the chick embryo. Development.31:3381-90.

Tabin,C and Wolpert,L 2007 Rethinking the proximodistal axis of the vertebrate limb in the molecular era. Genes and Development 21, 1433-1442

Kerszberg M, Wolpert L. 2007 Specifying positional information in the embryo: looking beyond morphogens. Cell, 130, 205-9.