Control and Regulation of Stem Cells with Allan Spradling Interviewed by Jane Alfred

Allan Spradling has contributed extensively to the technology of genetic manipulation in Drosophila melanogaster and... » More

Allan Spradling has contributed extensively to the technology of genetic manipulation in Drosophila melanogaster and applied these methods to fundamental problems of germ cell and stem cell development. With Gerry Rubin, he showed that transposable elements can function as transformation vectors, and used this approach to carry out the first successful gene therapy in a multicelluar organism. Using a novel method of insertional mutagenesis, which he and Rubin also incorporated into the Drosophila genome project, Spradling’s lab has advanced our understanding of several fundamental processes of oocyte development. His group has pioneered the use of Drosophila adult stem cells as models for mammalian stem cell biology, culminating in the first cellular and molecular characterization of a stem cell niche. Spradling is currently Director of the Department of Embryology of the Carnegie Institution in Baltimore, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1989, he served in 2007 as President of the Genetics Society of America.
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