Born: 20 October 1942, Germany
Died: NA
Country most active: Germany
Also known as: Janni Volhard
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Christiane “Janni” Nüsslein-Volhard is a prominent German developmental biologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995, making her the only German woman to achieve this distinction in the field of science.
Nüsslein-Volhard completed her PhD in 1974 at the University of Tübingen, focusing on protein-DNA interactions. In 1975, Nüsslein-Volhard began her postdoctoral work at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, under Walter Gehring’s mentorship, specializing in Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) developmental biology. She held a long-term fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Subsequently, in 1977, she joined Klaus Sander’s laboratory at the University of Freiburg, focusing on embryonic patterning. In 1978, Nüsslein-Volhard established her lab at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, partnering with Eric Wieschaus, whom she had met in Basel. Over the following three years, they meticulously examined around 20,000 mutated fly families, isolating approximately 600 mutants with altered body patterns. Their extensive work revealed that out of roughly 5,000 essential genes, only 120 played a pivotal role in early development. Their groundbreaking findings, published in October 1980, identified a mere 15 genes responsible for controlling the segmented pattern of the Drosophila larva.
In 1981, Nüsslein-Volhard joined the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tübingen. She remained there until her retirement in 2014, during which time she served as the director of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology and led its genetics department. Her work shifted focus after 1984, as she delved into the field of vertebrate developmental biology, with a primary research focus on the zebrafish.
Her work was recognized with the Albert LaskerAward for Basic Medical Research in 1991 and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995.