Father of embryology
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Hans Spemann
German embryologist (1869–1941)
Hans Spemann (German pronunciation:[ˈhansˈʃpeːˌman]ⓘ; 27 June 1869 – 9 September 1941) was a Germanembryologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935 for his student Hilde Mangold's discovery of the effect now known as embryonic induction, an influence, exercised by various parts of the embryo, that directs the development of groups of cells into particular tissues and organs, one of the first steps towards cloning.[1] Spemann added his name as an author to Hilde Mangold's dissertation (although she objected) and won a Nobel Prize for her work.
Biography
Hans Spemann was born in Stuttgart, the eldest son of publisher Wilhelm Spemann and his wife Lisinka, née Hoffman. After he left school in 1888 he spent a year in his father's business, then, in 1889–1890, he did military service in the Kassel Hussars followed by a short time as a bookseller in Hamburg. In 1891 he entered the University of Heidelberg where he studied medicine, taking his preliminary examination in 1893. Ther
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Introduction
Hans Spemann (1869 - 1941) was a German embryologist who worked extensively on amphibian development and was the discoverer of the organiser region (or primitive node) the controller of gastrulation (1924). This region was also called the "Spemann's organiser". The same region in birds it is known as "Hensen's node" named for Victor Hensen (1835 – 1924) and is also known generally as the primitive node or knot.
Spemann received the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of the organizer effect in embryonic development". Below is the transcript from his Nobel Lecture 1935.
Viktor Hamburger was a graduate student in Spemann’s department at Freiburg during the years that the organizer graft experiments were being performed. Later in 1988 he wrote the book "The Heritage of Experimental Embryology: Hans Spemann and the Organizer".
- Links:Gastrulation | Frog Development | Week 3 | Historic - Manual of Human Embryology | Wilhelm Roux
The Organizer-Effect in Embryonic Development
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[Hans Spemann, the founder of modern developmental biology]
Hans Spemann (1869-1941), Nobel laureate of 1935, is one of the most remarkable biologists of the 20th century and the founder of modern experimental embryology (developmental biology). His embryonic separation experiments contributed greatly to the long-lasting debate between the advocates of the theories of preformation vs. epigenesis, and his subsequent transplantation experiments laid the basis of the concept of embryonic induction. The first of these classic experiments can be precisely dated to May 8, 1921, when one of Spemannn's students, Hilde Pröscholdt, performed a transplantation experiment with a fragment of a new gastrula blastopore lip. The dates, operation strategies and findings have recently been confirmed when the original experimental protocols and slides were found. The findings and the idea of induction were published in 1924, and this fundamental paper is still widely quoted. As shown by a citation analysis, the article is today collecting an increasing number of quotations reflecting a Renaissan
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