Wolfgang Driever

Wolfgang Driever (born April 18, 1960 in Düsseldorf ) is a German professor of developmental biology at the Faculty of Biology at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg .

Life

Wolfgang Driever studied biochemistry at the Universities of Tübingen and Munich . He completed his doctorate in developmental biology in 1989 at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen and at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen.

From 1990 to 1991 a research stay at the Institute of Neurosciences at the University of Oregon, Eugene, USA followed. From 1991 to 1996 he was Assistant Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and the Cardiovascular Research Center of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA.

Following offers from domestic and foreign universities, he was appointed professor and full professor for animal developmental biology at the University of Freiburg in 1996 as successor to Klaus Sander .

In 1997, Wolfgang Driever co-founded the biotechnology company DeveloGen AG in Göttingen . DeveloGen is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of new treatments for metabolic and endocrinological diseases such as: B. Diabetes .

From 2001 to 2012 Driever was the spokesman for the Collaborative Research Center SFB 592 Signaling Mechanisms in Embryogenesis and Organogenesis at the University of Freiburg . Since 2005 he has been a member of the board of directors of the Center for BioSystem Analysis ZBSA at the University of Freiburg.

Since 2006 Driever has been Principal Investigator (PI) of the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine (SGBM) and the Freiburg Initiative for Systems Biology ( FRISYS ) and since 2007 PI of the Center for Biological Signaling Studies (bioss), whose research area B " Supracellular signal systems “he coordinates.

In 2020 Driever was elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization .

research

In his scientific work, Wolfgang Driever deals with mechanisms of development ( ontogenesis ), pattern formation and differentiation in animals. In Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard's group at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, he worked on the elucidation of the mechanism of action of the bicoid gene that controls the formation of the front half of the body of the Drosophila fruit fly . He showed that the highest concentration of bicoid protein is formed at the front tip of the fly embryo and that it decreases continuously towards the trunk in a concentration gradient. The local concentration of the bicoid protein determines the positions at which the various body structures of the front half of the fly's body are formed. This was the first time that the morphogen concept of embryonic pattern formation was demonstrated.

In the USA, Wolfgang Driever carried out one of the first major mutageneses in the model organism zebrafish . Hundreds of mutations were used to define new genes that control pattern formation , morphogenesis , organogenesis and differentiation in vertebrates. The work at the University of Freiburg focuses on two developmental biological problems.

1. Wolfgang Driever uses genetic models to investigate the role of Oct4 stem cell factor in controlling the pluripotency of the early cells of the embryo. In this project, the working group is increasingly using systems biology methods within the framework of the FORSYS program launched by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research ( BMBF ) .
2. Using genetic methods, Wolfgang Driever investigates the formation of the various groups of nerve cells that use dopamine as a neurotransmitter in the brain and demonstrated the function of defined transcription factors in the formation of these cells. He established zebrafish as a model system for studying the formation of dopaminergic neurons, which degenerate in various human diseases ( Parkinson's disease ). With almost 100 scientific publications, he has played a key role in ensuring that zebrafish are recognized worldwide as model objects in biomedical research.

Review articles and book chapters

• S. Ryu, J. Holzschuh, J. Mahler, W. Driever: Genetic analysis of dopaminergic system development in zebrafish . In: P. Riederer (eds.): Journal of Neural Transmission , 2006, pp. 61-66. Springer, Vienna / New York, ISSN  1435-1463 .
• J. Schweitzer, W. Driever: Development of the Dopamine Systems in Zebrafish . In: RJ Plasterkamp, ​​MP Smidt, JPH Burbach (eds.): Development and Engineering of Dopamine Neurons , 2008, Landes Bioscience and Springer Science + Business Media, Austin (ISBN to be announced).
• W. Driever, MC Fishman: The zebrafish: heritable disorders in transparent embryos . In: Journal of Clinical Investigation 97, 1996, pp. 1788-1794.
• D. Stemple, W. Driever: Zebrafish: Tools for Investigating Cellular Differentiation . In: Current Opinion in Cell Biology , 8, 1996, pp. 858-864. doi : 10.1016 / S0955-0674 (96) 80088-3
• W. Driever, D. Stemple, A. Schier, L. Solnica-Krezel: Zebrafish : genetic tools for studying vertebrate development . In: Trends in Genetics 10, 1994, pp. 152-159, PMID 8036717 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ W. Driever, C. Nüsslein-Volhard: The bicoid protein determines position in the Drosophila embryo in a position specific manner . In: Cell 54, 1988, pp. 95-104 doi : 10.1016 / 0092-8674 (88) 90183-3
2. ^ D. Grunwald, J. Eisen: Headwaters of the zebrafish - emergence of a new model vertebrate . In: Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 2002, pp. 717-724
3. ↑ K. Lunde, HG. Belting, W. Driever: Zebrafish pou5f1 / pou2, homolog of mammalian Oct4, functions in the endoderm specification cascade .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Current Biology , 14, 2004, pp. 48-55  
4. ↑ S. Ryu et al .: Orthopedia homeodomain protein is essential for diencephalic dopaminergic neuron development .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Current Biology , 17, 2007, pp. 873-880