Wittgenstein Award Laureate
Wittgenstein Award Laureate 1996 Univ. Prof. Dr. Erwin Wagner
Morphogenesis of the vertebrate face, The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology - IMP
Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) 
FROM GENE FUNCTION TO THERAPY
Erwin Friedrich Wagner, Wittgenstein Prize winner 1996, departed early from the direct path of a study of biochemistry and medicine. Born in Wolfsberg in the Lavant valley, he followed his desire for discovery from Graz to Berlin and Innsbruck, then to Philadelphia and Heidelberg and towards the end of 1988 to Vienna.
He is one of the Senior Scientists and Deputy Director of the Institute for Molecular Pathology (IMP), responsible for mammalian genetics and the study of gene transfer in the mouse model system. Together with his coworkers he is investigating the function of particular genes in mammalian cell growth, also when this is increased as a result of disease. ”By means of gene transfer studies in embyros and embryonal stem cells we are examining what happens when we change cells genetically. The cells we introduce can promote growth or gene inactivation. In this way we are starting to understand which of the approximately 30,000 genes of a mouse influence certain physiological and pathological developments.” The hope behind the experiments is ”to develop new concepts for the diagnosis and therapy of cancer.”
The IMP is a Boehringer Ingelheim research centre and as Wagner says, ”is run as an ideal case of informal cooperation between a university and the private sector.” Together with five Vienna University institutes and Intercell it comprises the Vienna BioCenter. ”We have no teaching duties and can therefore dedicate ourselves fully to research. This is definitely a privilege but we mustn’t get presumptuous.”
According to Wagner, the central problem of modern biology is gene control. ”Why is gene A active in cell X but not in cell Y? To answer this you need a very good system, one where you can switch genes on and off at will. If, for example, a gene is active in nerve cells and the cells remain normal when I switch it off, I can conclude that the gene probably does not have an essential function in this cell type.” If the experimental mouse dies ten days after fertilization, Wagner knows that the gene was essential. ”In this way we are trying to understand gene mutations and are aiming to provide the basis for rational therapies.”
In a scientific career it is important to know how long to stay very close to practical experiments. ”With fifteen people working in the lab it is a bit counter-productive.” In the next few years he will definitely focus more on strategic issues, directing his personnel and their projects.
Erwin Wagner was able with the Wittgenstein Prize to establish a new research group at the IMP. Under the independent leadership of Annette Neubueser, issues of developmental biology are being studied, in particular the problem of the formation of facial structure in the mouse and the chicken. ”This area is otherwise not represented in Austria and is something we can hold up as a good example,” he says, emphasizing the opportunity that the Prize money provided.
Preliminary results are already available concerning the activity that controls facial development and new genes have been isolated.
