Edward M. De Robertis

Edward De Robertis grew up in Montevideo, Uruguay where he received his M.D. in 1971. After completing a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Leloir Institute in Argentina, he trained under Sir John Gurdon in Cambridge, England, studying the nuclear reprogramming of mammalian nuclei microinjected into Xenopus oocytes. His work in developmental biology has contributed to the remarkable current realization that the molecular mechanisms of antero–posterior (Hox) and dorso-ventral patterning are common to all animal embryos. His work on Chordin (initiated with Yoshiki Sasai), a secreted antagonist of ventral BMP signals that is regulated by proteolytic cleavage, has provided a new paradigm for intercellular signaling. He joined the UCLA School of Medicine in 1985, where he is the N. Sprague Professor of Biological Chemistry and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organization, a Corresponding Member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 2002 to 2006 he was president of the International Society of Developmental Biologists.

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