Rudolf Jaenisch
- Born:
- April 22, 1942, Wölfelsgrund, Germany [now Międzygórze, Poland]
- Subjects Of Study:
- DNA
- bacteriophage
- epigenetics
- gene
- neuron
- stem cell
- transgene
- transgenic organism
Rudolf Jaenisch (born April 22, 1942, Wölfelsgrund, Germany [now Międzygórze, Poland]) is a German biologist known for his development of the first transgenic animal (an organism that has had genes from another species inserted into its genome) and for his research on epigenetic mechanisms, the means by which environmental factors surrounding the cell alter gene expression without changing the DNA sequence itself. Jaenisch’s research provided key insight into the behaviour of stem cells, including induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, and shed light on new therapeutic opportunities in the field of regenerative medicine.
Early career and discoveries
Jaenisch’s father and grandfather were physicians, and from an early age, he seemed destined to follow in their footsteps. While studying medicine at the University of Munich, however, Jaenisch decided to also pursue experimental research opportunities at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. There, in the laboratory of biochemist and virologist Peter Hans Hofschneider, he studied the replication and expression of bacteriophages (bacteria-infecting viruses). He completed an M.D. in 1967 and studied for another two years at Munich and the Max Planck Institute before moving to the United States to carry out postdoctoral research in the laboratory of American molecular biologist Arnold Levine at Princeton University. Focusing on simian virus 40 (SV40) and mechanisms of malignant transformation in cells, Jaenisch moved toward using mice as models for cancer research and became interested in the increased susceptibility to cancer exhibited by certain cell types. In experiments with mice, he found that injecting grown animals with SV40 resulted in sarcoma, a cancer of connective tissue. Working with developmental biologist Beatrice Mintz at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Jaenisch next injected the virus into early mouse embryos and was surprised to discover that none of the animals developed cancer. The outcome caused Jaenisch to question whether the virus had successfully inserted into the embryonic mouse genome.
Development of transgenic mice
Jaenisch subsequently joined the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, where he began collaborating with American biochemist Paul Berg and others to develop novel ways to detect viral DNA within infected mice. In 1974, using a technique known as nick translation, in which a piece of DNA is radioactively labeled to allow for its detection, Jaenisch discovered that the DNA of SV40, following injection into an early-stage mouse embryo, integrated into all the tissues of the mouse, without causing sarcoma. The results explained the outcome of his earlier experiments with Mintz but raised new questions about cell susceptibility to cancer. With successful SV40 insertion in mice, Jaenisch developed the first transgenic animal. The term transgenic, however, was not introduced to describe such organisms until the early 1980s.
Epigenetics and stem-cell research
In 1977 Jaenisch went to the Heinrich Pette Institute in Hamburg, Germany, where he pursued his studies of viral infection in mice. He found that gene activity in the embryo was disrupted after certain viruses had inserted themselves into the genome during early embryonic development, a phenomenon that came to be known as insertional mutagenesis. His research led him to investigate DNA methylation, which played a role in silencing gene activity during early development. After seven years in Germany, Jaenisch moved to the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. There his work became increasingly centred on epigenetics and understanding how DNA methylation controls gene expression.
Jaenisch was impressed by the birth in 1996 of Dolly the sheep, the first clone of an adult mammal. Dolly was produced by British developmental biologist Sir Ian Wilmut and colleagues by using a technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Jaenisch set out to try to understand how a fully differentiated nucleus from an adult cell that had been placed inside an enucleated egg (an egg cell that has had its own nucleus removed) could be “reprogrammed” by the egg’s cytoplasm—the basic phenomenon that underlies whole animal cloning via SCNT. He thought this was the purest form of epigenetics, whereby factors in the nuclear environment (the egg cytoplasm) dictated gene activity and ultimately guided development.
In 2007, after more than a decade of research, Jaenisch became one of the first scientists to identify master gene regulators that effectively reprogram adult cells, returning them to a pluripotent state (the capacity to differentiate into any cell type of the body). Using iPS cells, Jaenisch further showed in animals that genetic defects responsible for sickle cell anemia (an inherited blood disorder) could be repaired and the newly corrected cells used to replace diseased cells in the bone marrow. In subsequent work, he and colleagues showed that neurons derived from iPS cells are able to integrate into the developing mouse brain and that iPS cells had potential applications in reducing symptoms of Parkinson disease. He also investigated epigenetic mechanisms underlying brain development and cancer.
Awards and honours
Jaenisch received various awards during his career, including the National Medal of Science (2010), the Wolf Prize in Medicine (2011), and the Otto Warburg Medal (2014). He was an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (from 2003) and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (from 1992). He also was president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (2014–15).
