| RefNo | EC/1995/43 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Gluecksohn-Waelsch, Salome: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1991 |
| Description | Certificate of Candidate for Election to Foreign Membership. Citation typed |
| Citation | After obtaining her doctorate in the laboratory of the famous amphibian embryologist Hans Spemann, Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch left Germany in the mid 1930s, and has since been based in New York, first at Columbia and subsequently at Albert Einstein, where she is working actively. Her work has spanned nearly 60 years, during which time she has made a massive and unique contribution to our understanding both of the mechanisms of mammalian development and their genetic and molecular control. She is particularly known for her pioneering studies on the complex t locus of the mouse: she analysed a series of t lethal genes, and their interaction and their mode of development, and in a classic paper described the time and cause of death of homozygous brachyury (T/T) embryos. Other lethal mutants that she analysed include phocomelia, which produces limb and palate abnormalities, and kinky, which involves defects of axis determination leading to duplications and twinning that are of particular interest today. She was the first to work out the genetics of haemoglobin types in mice, and began in the 1960s to turn her attention to biochemical genetics. In particular, the discovery that several radiation-induced lethal mutations at the albino locus caused perinatal death due to glucose 6-phosphatase deficiency led her into a series of genetical, chromosomal, morphological, ultrastructural, biochemical and molecular studies that have formed the focus of her research for the last 20 years. These mutations were found to be due to deletions of various sizes, the largest of which was visible cytogenetically, and which caused death at stages varying from preimplantation development to the time of birth. Subcellular abnormalities in embryonic cells were identified by electron microscopy, and biochemical deficiencies were found to include a number of liver enzymes in addition to glucose-6-phosphatase, and also serum proteins including albumin. The discovery that the structural genes for these various enzymes and serum proteins are located on different chromosomes led Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch to postulate the concept of a master regulatory gene, coordinating the expression of a battery of genes scattered over the genome. The formulation of this novel concept in eukaryotic gene regulation has been the focus of molecular studies of the deleted region by her and her colleagues, and attempts to clone the regulatory sequences are still continuing. Throughout her long career, Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch's work has been characterized not only by meticulous attention to detail and powers of observation, but also by incisive and critical thinking, and by her unusual breadth of vision. |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA4685 | Gluecksohn-Waelsch; Salome (1907 - 2007) | 1907 - 2007 |