Rudolf Winklbauer

Rudolf Winklbauer completed his master’s and doctoral degrees from the Universität Tübingen in Germany, working with Xenopus laevis. After working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Developmental Biology from 1983 to 1988, and at the University of California, Berkeley from 1988 to 1989, he returned to the MPI for Developmental Biology as group leader. In 1992, he moved to the University of Cologne to assume an assistant professorship and was later appointed to Privatdozant in 1999 at the same institution. He, again, returned to the MPI for Developmental Biology for two years as senior scientist, before taking his current appointment in the Department of Cell and Systems Biology at University of Toronto in 2001. He was appointed Full Professor in the same institution in 2007.

His group studies the molecular and cellular basis of different morphogenetic processes that contribute to gastrulation in Xenopus laevis. In particular, they examine how cell migration in the gastrula is controlled by paired-class homeodomain genes and PDFG signaling, analyze the control mechanisms behind embryonic cell sorting and convergent extension, and look at novel gastrulation processes such as vegetal rotation and active mesoderm involution.