Michael Wigler | Biography

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 ras in signal transduction as well the interaction of oncogenes with a class of cancer related genes called tumor suppressor genes or anti-oncogenes were also investigated in Wigler's laboratory.

Together with Clark Still of Columbia University, Wigler developed the powerful method of encoded combinatorial synthesis. This method, which is commercially available, helped accelerate the design, testing and analysis of novel drug candidates and small synthetic peptides that can be used as inhibitors/regulators of biologically active biomolecules like ras.

Wigler, together with Nikolai Lisitsyn, developed genomic representational difference analysis (RDA), a powerful genetic technology that allows the identification in the genomes of different cells and tissues. Wigler and colleagues identified several oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes using RDA. Several other groups who identified novel genes and even whole viruses have also used this technique. The method has been modified such that, besides the identification of genomic DNA variation, it now allows the comparison of differences in the mRNA expression profile of different cells and tissues. The research in Wigler laboratory is now focused on molecular genetics of cancer. Applying the RDA technology, the laboratory identified several cancer related genetic lesion and many oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes.

Born in New York, Michael Wigler got a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton in 1970, a Masters degree at Rutgers in 1972, and a PhD in microbiology from Columbia University in 1978. He held several positions at Columbia University and was awarded the Pfizer Biomed Award, the Lifetime Research Professor Award of the American Chemical Society and the National Institute of Health (NIH) Outstanding Investigator Award. In 1989, Wigler became a member of the National Academy of Sciences, at the age of 42. He is now professor at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.