Charles Weissmann

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Charles Weissmann (1982)

Charles Weissmann (born October 14, 1931 in Budapest ) is a Swiss molecular biologist .

He grew up in Zurich and Rio de Janeiro. As a professor of molecular biology in the 1970s, he played a key role in establishing this new discipline. He founded the biotech company in the early 1980s Biogen with and was created using the cloning of interferon famous worldwide. He then played an important role in research into mad cow disease . He lives in London , Florida and in Loorengut in Zurich Witikon .

life and work

Charles Weissmann was born in Budapest as the son of Chiel Weissmann and Berta Weissmann. From 1931 he lived in Zurich , where he attended primary school. In June 1940 the family left Switzerland for fear of the Third Reich and came to Rio de Janeiro because of the impossibility of obtaining a US visa . His enthusiasm for research was aroused there already, especially through the book Microbe Hunter by Paul de Kruif . In 1946 - back in Switzerland - he attended the Cantonal Gymnasium in Zurich. He then studied at the University of Zurich from 1950 , where he received his doctorate in 1957. med. and in 1961 with Paul Karrer in organic chemistry for Dr. phil. received his doctorate . In the same year he went to Severo Ochoa as a postdoctoral fellow in the Biochemistry Department of the School of Medicine at New York University , where he became Assistant Professor in 1964 and Associate Professor in 1965. In 1967 he returned to Zurich to head the University Institute for Molecular Biology as Associate Professor. From 1970 to 1999 he was also a full professor of molecular biology at the University of Zurich. After his retirement he went to St. Mary's Hospital and University College London . Since 2004 he has continued his research at the new Scripps Research Institute in Florida.

At the beginning of his scientific career, Weissmann dealt with bacteriophages . In this way he was able to elucidate the structure and multiplication of viruses containing RNA . He also developed the reverse genetics method . In 1978 he was one of the co-founders of the Geneva company Biogen , for whom he devised a way of artificially producing alpha interferon . To do this, he isolated the human interferon gene and incorporated it into the genome of Escherichia coli . This has made it possible to produce large amounts of interferon, which is used in the treatment of hepatitis B and certain types of cancer, such as hairy cell leukemia and Kaposi's sarcoma . From 1983 Weissmann devoted himself to prion research . He succeeded in switching off the gene that codes for the healthy precursor protein PrP C of the disease-causing protein PrP Sc , so that he could breed resistant mice.

Weissmann is married and has four children. His hobbies are photography and trekking.

Fonts (selection)

In addition to the fonts specified in the footnotes:

  • with MA Billeter, JE Dahlberg, HM Goodman, J. Hindley: Sequence of the first 175 nucleotides from the 5 'terminus of Qbeta RNA synthesized in vitro , Nature, Volume 224, 1969, pp. 1083-1086.
  • with G. Feix, R. Pollet: Replication of viral RNA, XVI. Enzymatic synthesis of infectious virual RNA with noninfectious Q-beta minus strands as template , Proc Natl Acad Sci. USA, Vol. 59, 1968, pp. 145-152
  • with RA Flavell, DL Sabo, EF Bandle: Site-directed mutagenesis: generation of an extracistronic mutation in bacteriophage Q beta RNA , J. Mol. Biol., Volume 89, 1974, pp. 255-72
  • with B. Coffin, MA Billeter: A physical map of the Rous sarcoma virus genome , J. Mol. Biol., Vol. 100, 1976, pp. 293-318
  • with E. Stoll u. a .: Avian myeloblastosis virus RNA is terminally redundant: implications for the mechanism of retrovirus replication , Cell, Volume 12, 1977, pp. 57-72.
  • Reversed genetics. A new approach to the elucidation of structure-function relationships , Trends Biochem. Sci., Vol. 3, 1978, p. 111.
  • with E. Domingo, D. Sabo, T. Taniguchi: Nucleotide sequence heterogeneity of an RNA phage population , Cell, Volume 13, 1978, pp. 735-44.
  • with T. Taniguchi, M. Palmieri: QB DNA-containing hybrid plasmids giving rise to QB phage formation in the bacterial host , Nature, Volume 274, 1978, pp. 223-228
  • Genetic manipulation: Achievements and prospects , Naturforschende Gesellschaft, Neujahrsblatt 181, Zurich 1979 (also as: Quarterly journal of the Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Zurich. Vol. 123, no.5)
  • with S. Nagata a. a .: Synthesis in E. coli of a polypeptide with human leukocyte interferon activity , Nature, Volume 284, 1980, pp. 316-320
  • with B. Oesch, R. Aebersold a. a .: A cellular gene encodes scrapie PrP 27-30 protein , Cell, Volume 40, 1985, pp. 735-746
  • with H. Büeller, Adriano Aguzzi a . a .: Mice devoid of PrP are resistant to scrapie, Cell, Volume 73, 1993, pp. 1339-1347, PMID 8100741
  • with S. Brandner, Aguzzi u. a .: Normal host prion protein necessary for scrapie-induced neurotoxicity, Nature, Volume 379, 1996, pp. 339-343.
  • with H. Büeler a. a .: Normal development and behavior of mice lacking the neuronal cell-surface PrP protein , Nature, Volume 356, 1992, pp. 577-582
  • with P.-C. Klöhn u. a .: A quantitative, highly sensitive cell-based infectivity assay for mouse scrapie prions , Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 100, 2003, pp. 11666-11671. * with J. Li u. a .: Darwinian evolution of prions in cell culture , Science, Volume 327, 2010, pp. 869-872
  • The end of the road. In: Prion. Volume 6, number 2, 2012 Apr-Jun, pp. 97-104, doi : 10.4161 / pri.19778 , PMID 22437734 , PMC 3366357 (free full text).

Awards

Memberships

literature

items

Web links

( ↑ back to publications )
Commons : Charles Weissmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Specialist publications, publications

CV research institutes, universities

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Weissmann, The importance of transaminases for internal diagnostics , dissertation, Schwabe, Zurich / Basel 1957
  2. ↑ Weissmann, Strychanon, a breakdown product of strychnine and its relationship to the calebasse alkaloids , dissertation, Zurich 1961
  3. ^ Charles Weissmann: Reversed genetics . In: Trends in Biochemical Sciences . Volume 3, Issue 5, 1978, pp. N109-N111.
  4. ^ H. Büeler, A. Aguzzi, A. Sailer, R, Greiner, P. Autenried, M. Aguet, C. Weissmann: Mice devoid of PrP are resistant to scrapie . In: Cell . Volume 73, Issue 7, 1993, pp. 1339-47.
  5. ^ Entry about Charles Weissmann in the database of the Wilhelm Exner Medal Foundation .
  6. ↑ 50,000 euros for Professor Adriano Aguzzi. ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. UZH press release of September 11, 2013.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mediadesk.uzh.ch
  7. ^ Member entry of Prof. MD PhD Charles Weissmann (with picture) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on July 20, 2016.
  8. ↑ a b ETH Library (Online): NEBIS library catalog, ETH Zurich's publication platform, E-Periodica, ETH Data Archive, E-Pics image catalogs, Material-Archiv, Archivdatenbank Online
personal data
SURNAME Weissmann, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss molecular biologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest