Boris Ephrussi 1631389 219854620 2008-06-17T04:19:08Z Lightbot 7178666 Units/dates/other '''Boris Ephrussi''' ([[May 9]] [[1901]]–[[May 2]] [[1979]]) was a [[France|French]] [[genetics|geneticist]] of [[Russia]]n origin. He was one of the many famous [[Jewish]] [[Biology|life scientists]]. He had published two papers in November 1966 which represented a key step in a decade of research in his laboratory. This research helped transform [[mammal]]ian, and especially [[human]], genetics. Boris started his [[science|scientific]] training as a Russian [[émigré]] in 1920. He studied the initiation and regulation of [[embryo]]logical processes by [[intracellular]] and [[extracellular]] factors. A major strand of his early research concerned the effect of temperature on the development of [[fertilisation|fertilized]] [[sea urchin]] [[egg (biology)|eggs]]. In this work he used a micromanipulator, which was developed by [[Robert Chambers]], an [[United States|American]] biologist. During Ephrussi's time, writing a second [[dissertation]] was standard practice in France. Ephrussi's involved [[tissue culture|culturing tissues]].{{ref|1935a}} Ephrussi ran into difficulties typically associated with early tissue culture techniques, but despite these obstacles Ephrussi managed to conclude from studies of [[brachyury]] in [[mouse|mice]] that intrinsic factors (i.e [[genes]]) play a key role in [[Developmental biology|development]]. As the next phase of his [[career]], Ephrussi coupled his embryological concerns with a firm conviction that one must understand the role of genes in order to decipher embryological processes. He moved to [[Caltech]] in 1934 and stayed until 1935 to learn genetics within the intellectual empire of [[T.H. Morgan]]. This move was supported by the [[Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship]]. During this period he conducted important work with [[George Beadle]], who joined him in [[Paris]] in the autumn of 1935. There they produced results from experiments with [[Drosophila melanogaster|Drosophila]] eye [[Organ transplant|transplant]]s which became integral to the work of [[George Wells Beadle|Beadle]] and [[Edward Lawrie Tatum|Tatum]], who were working with [[Neurospora]], and from this research developed the '[[one gene, one enzyme]]' hypothesis. During [[World War II]], Ephrussi spent most of his time as a [[refugee]] at Johns Hopkins University. Following this he began work in France on [[yeast]] and [[cytoplasm]]ic genetics. He began working at the [[Institut de Biologie Physicochimique]] (the Rothschild Institute) in Paris, and later worked at the [[CNRS]] at [[Gif-sur-Yvette]], where he studied the contribution of cytoplasm to the cell [[phenotype]] and pursued the interactions between [[cell nucleus|nuclear]] and cytoplasmic genetic endowments necessary to the yielding of an intact, functioning (albeit [[amoeba|single-celled]]) [[organism]]. Ephrussi continued to work on the topics he was primarily interested until the late 1970s. Topics covered included *using [[Hybrid (biology)|hybrids]] with [[teratoma]]s to explore determination and differentiation (e.g. ''Finch and Ephrussi 1967''; ''Kahan and Ephrussi 1970''). *negative regulation of differentiated function (e.g. ''Davidson, Ephrussi and Yamamoto 1966''; ''Fougbre, Ruiz and Ephrussi 1972''). *cellular and genetic biological approaches over a direct attack at the [[molecule|molecular]] level (''Ephrussi 1970'', page 12). In 1974 Ephrussi won a [[Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize]] from [[Columbia University]]. Ephrussi lived to see that transplantation was transforming into a genetic tool that would take on a new and more powerful aspect in the molecular era. However he died before seeing the genetic advances made by DNA recombination studies which had been set in motion by the studies he had undertaken. It can be said that Ephrussi was a pioneer of embryology and a main contributor to the reconciliation of modern genetics and [[Embryology]]. ==Notes== {{note|1935a}} see ''Ephrussi 1935a'' ==External links== * [http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/horwitz/ The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize] {{DEFAULTSORT:Ephrussi,Boris}} [[Category:1901 births]] [[Category:1979 deaths]] [[Category:French biologists]] [[Category:French geneticists]]