Profile of Edward M. De Robertis

Abstract

Curiosity about the mysterious workings of embryos fuels the research of embryologist Edward M. De Robertis (also known as Eddy), who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2013. His isolation of genes that control head-to-tail and back-to-belly patterning in early frog and mouse embryos led to the discovery that animal development is controlled by an ancient genetic toolkit. De Robertis dissected the process of embryonic induction, in which groups of cells called “organizers” control tissue differentiation. Earlier work by De Robertis and colleagues contributed to the beginning of the scientific discipline known as evo-devo, which takes an evolutionary perspective on development. Edward M. De Robertis. Image courtesy of Ana De Robertis. De Robertis, Norman Sprague Professor of Biological Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, is interested in how cells in the vertebrate embryo communicate with one another over long distances. Deciphering such cell signaling remains a fundamental problem in stem cell biology and cancer. De Robertis has been a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA since 1985. He is also a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Latin American Academy of Sciences, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. De Robertis was born in 1947 in Boston, MA, while his neurobiologist father was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The family moved to Montevideo, Uruguay, when he was three. His parents were Argentinians exiled by General Juan Peron. De Robertis describes Montevideo in the 1950s as an idyllic place to grow up. “These were peaceful, safe, and innocent times,” he says. “I attended a primary and high school run by American Methodist Missionaries who provided a good education mostly in English.” During high …