Spemann-Mangold Organizer Experiment

In 1924, the German embryologist Hans Spemann and his graduate student Hilde Mangold transplanted a small piece of tissue from the dorsal lip of one newt embryo, at an early developmental stage called the gastrula, into a different location on a second host newt embryo, and found that the transplanted tissue induced the surrounding host cells to form an entire second, largely complete embryonic body axis. The experiment showed that this small region of tissue, which they named the organizer, could direct the development of neighboring cells into an organized body plan, establishing the concept of embryonic induction as a central mechanism of development. Spemann received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935 for the discovery; Mangold died in an accident before the prize was awarded and never shared the recognition for the experiment she performed.