Paul Gottlob Layer

Paul Gottlob Layer (* 1948 in Beutelsbach near Stuttgart) is a German developmental biologist and professor emeritus for zoology at the TU Darmstadt . He is known for his work on the neurobiological foundations of early childhood development.

Life

Layer studied food technology and nutritional science at the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim from 1969 to 1973 . In 1976 he received his doctorate at the University of Konstanz under Ferdinand Hucho on photoaffinity labeling of the cholinergic receptor and acetylcholinesterase . From 1977 to 1979 Layer did research as a postdoc at the Stanford School of Medicine , USA on the signal transduction of nerve growth factor (NGF) and NGF receptor. Research on the development of the vertebrate brain at the MPI for Developmental Biology (Dept. Alfred Gierer ), Tübingen, followed. In 1984 Layer received his habilitation in "Zoology" at the University of Tübingen . From 1985 to 1990 he was a DFG Heisenberg fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen.

In 1986 and 1990 Layer spent longer stays at the MPG guest laboratory of the Institute for Cell Biology at Academia Sinica, Shanghai, PR China. In 1991 he was appointed Professor of Zoology, Department of Developmental Biology & Neurogenetics at the TU Darmstadt. In 1999 he was visiting professor for Cognitive & Brain Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan. Between 1993 and 2005 Layer was several times director of the Institute for Zoology and Dean of the Faculty of Biology at the TU Darmstadt and from 2005 to 2008 on the board of the Biotechnology Center. From 1993 he was a liaison professor for the German National Academic Foundation at the TU Darmstadt. He has been retired since 2015.

Scientific contribution

Based on the now outdated assumptions of classical genetics, the information provided by the not much more than twenty thousand genes of the human genome was by no means sufficient to explain the formation of the human brain, let alone its performance. At the MPI for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Layer initially focused on the analysis of spatial patterns of the brain maturation of vertebrates. Spatial-temporal differentiation gradients in 3D were described for the entire early brain of the chicken embryo and for the retina in the eye. At the same time as others, Layer rediscovered the rhombomers in the rear brain as a segmented brain area. If these studies resulted in precise development maps of the early chicken brain in the longitudinal direction of the neural tube , the differentiation of neuronal tissue in its transverse direction was studied using the example of the formation of cell layers in the retina.

In addition to various in vivo studies, Layer and his colleagues achieved significant advances in the culture of retinal cells. In the credits of Johannes Holtfreter , Aron Moscona and Alfred Gierer, Layer recognized the potential of 3D rotation cell cultures during his time in Tübingen. For the first time, his group was able to cultivate highly ordered, fully layered retinosphereroids from embryonic stem cells of chickens and mice. For Layer, the fact that growth factors significantly influenced cell determination in the retinosphere were strong indications of adaptive, gene-independent processes in retinal development and brought him closer to a new understanding of evolution ( Evo-Devo , see below). His work also showed in principle that such stem cell processes can lead to the cultivation of human retinal tissue ( tissue engineering ).

At the molecular level, Layer was looking for non-synaptic functions of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) in brain maturation and in the development of the trunk and skeleton. The expression of butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) in proliferating stem cells and their counter-regulation to AChE was demonstrated long before synaptogenesis . For the first time, a non-enzymatic effect of AChE on neurite growth could be demonstrated.

Layer covered wide fields of zoology, cell, neuro and human biology with his teaching. He presented processes of biological evolution on a new basis using findings from Evo-Devo research. In Darmstadt, he promoted the interdisciplinary dialogue within the framework of the Darmstadt Bionics Center with electrical engineers and with humanities scholars within the framework of IANUS. In addition, he makes contributions to the dialogue between science and theology.

honors and awards

2013 Daidalos coin of the German National Academic Foundation

Publications

• Paul G. Layer Publication List ResearchGate
• Paul G. Layer Publication List PubMed

Web links

• Paul G. Layer TU Darmstadt
• Prof. Dr. Paul G. Layer: Developmental Biology and Neurogenetics

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hucho, F., Layer, P., Kiefer, HR and Bandini, G. (1976). Photoaffinity Labeling and Quaternary Structure of the Acetylcholine Receptor from Torpedo californica. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 13, 2624-2628.
2. ^ 1. Layer, PG and Shooter, EM (1983). Binding and degradation of Nerve Growth Factor by PC12 pheochromocytoma cells. J. Biol. Chem. 258, 3012-3018.
3. ↑ PGLayer CV
4. ↑ Weikert, T., Rathjen FG and Layer, PG (1990). Developmental maps of acetylcholinesterase and G4 antigen of the early chicken brain: long distance tracts originate from AChE-producing cell bodies. J. Neurobiol. 21, 482-498.
5. ^ Layer, PG and Alber, R. (1990). Patterning of chick brain vesicles as revealed by peanut agglutinin and cholinesterases. Development 109, 613-624.
6. ↑ Vollmer, G. and Layer, PG (1986). An in vitro model of proliferation and differentiation of the chick retina: coaggregates of retinal and pigment epithelial cells. J. Neurosci. 6, 1885-1896.
7. ^ Layer, PG and Willbold, E. (1994). Regeneration of the avian retina by Retinospheroid Technology (invited review). Prog. Ret. Res. 13, 197-229.
8. ^ Rieke, M., Gottwald, E., Weibezahn, KF, Layer, PG (2008). Tissue reconstruction in 3D spheroids from rodent retina in a motion-free, bioreactor-based microstructure. Lab Chip 8: 2206-2213.
9. ^ Layer, PG (1983). Comparative localization of acetylcholinesterase and pseudocholinesterase during morphogenesis of the chicken brain. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 80, 6413-6417.
10. ^ Layer, PG, Alber, R. and Rathjen, FG (1988). Sequential activation of butyrylcholinesterase in rostral half somites and acetylcholinesterase in motoneurones and myotomes preceding growth of motor axons. Development, 102, 387-396.
11. ↑ Spieker, J., Ackermann, A., Salfelder, A., Vogel-Höpker, A., Layer, PG (2016). Acetylcholinesterase regulates skeletal in ovo development of chicken limbs by ACh-dependent and -independent mechanisms. PLoS One. 11: e0161675. doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0161675 .
12. ↑ Janine Spieker, Thomas Mudersbach, Astrid Vogel-Höpker, Paul G. Layer, Israel Silman: Endochondral Ossification Is Accelerated in Cholinesterase-Deficient Mice and in Avian Mesenchymal Micromass Cultures. In: PLOS ONE. 12, 2017, p. E0170252, doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0170252 .
13. ^ Layer, PG, Sporns, O. (1987). Spatiotemporal relationship of embryonic cholinesterases with cell proliferation in chick retina and eye. Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci. USA, 84, 284-288.
14. ^ Layer, PG, Weikert, T., Alber, R. (1993). Cholinesterases regulate neurite growth of chick nerve cells in vitro by means of a non-enzymatic mechanism. Cell Tissue Res. 273, 219-226.
15. ^ Layer PG (2009). Double head & shrunken leg: evolutionary games in the embryo. labor & more 05/09, 34-38.
16. ↑ IANUS TU-Darmstadt ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
17. ^ Layer PG (2009). About human freedoms: With the brain to the world and then to God. In: Images of God on the border between science and theology. Eds. Souvignier G, Lüke U, Schnakenberg J, Meisinger H, WBG Darmstadt, ISBN 978-3-534-22149-3 ; Pp. 144-160.
18. ↑ Professor Paul G. Layer receives the Daidalos coin from the German National Academic Foundation