Michael Wigler made a series of important discoveries that had major impact on the progress of modern molecular biology and genetics during the last three decades. He participated in the early experiments that allowed the transfer and stable integration of exogenous DNA into the genome of eukaryotic cells as well the preparation of enucleated cells. These early experiments provided a useful model system for studies on the transfer of genes to mammalian cells in culture.

In 1981, Wigler discovered, together with geneticists Robert Weinberg and Geoffrey Cooper, the first human cancer gene or oncogene, (i.e., the ras gene). The function of this gene was studied in great detail in a yeast model system that was developed in Wigler's laboratory a few years later. Ras was shown to be a guanine trinucleotide (GTP) dependant molecule with important function in various biological signaling processes in the cell. The role of...