Rudolf Jaenisch

Rudolf Jaenisch is a German American molecular biologist born April 22, 1942, in Wolfelsgrund, Germany, now Miedzygorze, Poland, and a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. In 1974, working with Beatrice Mintz, he showed that foreign DNA could be integrated into the DNA of early mouse embryos, producing the first transgenic mammals, and his laboratory was among the first in the world to reprogram mouse cells into induced pluripotent stem cells in 2007, with early demonstrations of therapeutic use against sickle cell anemia and Parkinson disease. His research also addresses the epigenetic regulation of gene expression in cancer and brain development. He received the National Medal of Science in 2010, the Wolf Prize in Medicine in 2011, and the Gruber Prize in Genetics in 2001.