Hans Meinhardt (natural scientist)

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Hans Meinhardt (2012)

Hans Meinhardt (born December 23, 1938 in Mühlhausen (Thuringia) ; † February 11, 2016 in Tübingen ) was a German scientist . Meinhardt is known for his pioneering work in the field of pattern formation in biology .

Life

Meinhardt studied physics in Heidelberg and Cologne and received his doctorate in Cologne in 1966. His dissertation was on a topic of weak interaction and especially beta decay , which he researched at the cyclotron of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg. He then worked on computer simulations at CERN in Geneva for two years . He then turned to biology and moved to the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology (then Max Planck Institute for Virus Research) in Tübingen , where he worked until his death.

Scientific contribution

Meinhardt dealt with the development of patterns on growing organisms , for example on the fur of the zebra , on the shells of sea ​​snails . Initially, he worked in Alfred Gierer's group in Tübingen, modeling the development of Hydra . For vertebrate extremity development , he designed a model of multi-stage gene activation in 1983 , which he expanded in 2009. Even with the formation of center lines (body axes) of Bilateria - embryos , the first structure-forming stage of development, he dealt.

Meinhardt used graphic computer models to find systems of partial differential equations whose solutions correspond to the patterns observed in living beings. The systems of equations in turn give clues to the structure of the unknown biochemical systems that produce the patterns. Meinhardt's work, who published together with Alfred Gierer for a long time , is one of the pioneering works in the field of phenotypic pattern formation.

The idea of ​​the Turing mechanism , which the two researchers were not yet aware of in 1972, was formulated independently of Turing's 1952 work by Meinhardt and Gierer and, at the same time, significantly expanded. Your model from 1972 explains firstly how a local, self-reinforcing source ( activator ) for the morphogen can be generated and secondly introduces lateral inhibition , whereby new principles of pattern formation, e.g. B. strips, could be written. Gierer and Meinhardt also extended Turing's pattern-forming chemical diffusion processes to the cellular level, so that phenotypic patterns could be represented by cell-cell reactions. The models were later called Local activator lateral inhibitor models or LALI models in the literature.

See also

Fonts

items

  • with Gierer: A theory of biological pattern formation , Cybernetik, Volume 12, 1972, pp. 30-39
  • A theory of the control of spatial cell differentiation , Biologie in our Time, 1979, No. 2, p. 33
  • Generation of biological patterns and form: Some physical, mathematical, and logical aspects , Progr. Biophys. Molec. Biol., Vol. 37, 1981, pp. 1-47
  • with M. Klingler: A model for pattern formation on the shells of molluscs , J. theor. Biol, Volume 126, 1987, pp. 63-69
  • Gierer-Meinhardt Model , Scholarpedia 2006
  • Models of biological pattern formation: from elementary steps to the organization of embryonic axes , Curr. Top. Dev. Biol., Vol. 81, 2008, pp. 1-63
  • Structure and dismantling processes of patterns in biology: Structure formation processes , Biology in our time, Volume 31, 2001, No. 1, pp. 22-29
  • The simulation of embryonic development , Spectrum of Science, March 2010

For more publications see: ResearchGate Publication List Hans Meinhardt

interview

  • From observations to paradigms; the importance of theories and models. An interview with Hans Meinhardt Online

Books

  • Models of Biological Pattern formation , Academic Press 1982
  • The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells , 2nd expanded edition, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York 1998, 3rd edition 2003, ISBN 3-540-63919-5 . (German edition: How snails throw themselves into shells )

literature

Web links

Commons : Hans Meinhardt (biologist)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Meinhardt, Hans 1983: A bootstrap model for the proximodistal pattern formation in vertebrate limbs. Journal of Embryological Experimental Morphology, 76, 139-146
  2. ↑ Meinhardt, Hans 2009: Models for the Generation and Interpretation of Gradients. Cold Springs Harbor Perspectives in Biology 2009
  3. ↑ Meinhardt, H. (2004). Different strategies for midline formation in bilaterians. Nat. Rev. Neurosci 5, 502-510.
  4. ↑ Patrick Müller, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard: Obituary: Hans Meinhardt (1938-2016) , Development, Volume 143, 2016, pp. 1231-1233
  5. ^ Alfred Gierer, Hans Meinhardt: A Theory of Biological Pattern Formation. Cybernetics, Volume 12, 1972, pp. 30-39
  6. ↑ Hans Meinhardt, Alfred Gierer: Activator-Inhibitor - A model for biological pattern formation. In: av.tib.eu. Retrieved September 13, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Meinhardt, H., 1982. Models of Biological Pattern Formation. Academic Press, London
personal data
SURNAME Meinhardt, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German natural scientist
DATE OF BIRTH December 23, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Mulhouse
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 2016
Place of death Tübingen