Øjvind Winge

Øjvind Winge
Born (1886-05-19)May 19, 1886[1]
Died April 5, 1964(1964-04-05) (aged 77) [1]
Fields Genetics
Institutions Carlsberg Laboratory
Thesis The chromosomes: their numbers and general importance
Notable awards Fellow of the Royal Society[1]
Author abbrev. (botany)

Øjvind Winge (1886-1964) was a Danish biologist and a pioneer in yeast genetics.[1][3][4][5][6][7]

Education

Winge was born in the city of Aarhus in Jutland, the mainland of Denmark. After completing secondary school he travelled to the University of Copenhagen to study law but found himself more suited to the biological sciences into which he transferred. He graduated with a master's degree in the year 1910. From Copenhagen he travelled to Stockholm, Paris and Chicago, studying mainly chromosomal cytology before finally returning to the University of Copenhagen to do a doctoral thesis entitled The Chromosomes: Their Numbers and General Importance. In 1910 Winge was appointed chair of genetics at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, where amongst other works he wrote The Textbook in Genetics, published in 1928.

Career

In 1933 Winge was offered and accepted the position of Director of the Physiology Department in the Carlsberg Laboratory, Copenhagen. Here he dedicated his research to the 3 principal lifeforms of interest to his benefactors; hops, barley and yeast, although his studies became increasingly dedicated to yeast. He developed and used techniques to achieve the micromanipulation of single yeast cells and spores in order to investigate them on a genetic level. He found that yeast spores are diploid and haploid cells occur as a result of conjugation of two haploid cells or self-diploidisation. This was important as it revealed that the species exhibits alternation and that strains can be genetically manipulated by specific mating. Winge also demonstrated that the traits of the organisms were mainly governed by simple Mendelian rules. He continued his research and his lab produced a steady output of genetics papers until 1961.

Winge's work was of critical importance to the basic formation of early genetic engineering and biotechnology. He helped to establish a firm basis for what have now developed into important and lucrative scientific fields. For this reason he is often attributed the title of 'The Father of Yeast Genetics'.

Awards and honours

Winge was elected foreign member of the Royal Society in 1947.[1][8]

Selected bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Westergaard, M. (1964). "Ojvind Winge 1886-1964". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 10: 356–326. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1964.0020.
  2. ↑ "Author Query for 'Winge'". International Plant Names Index.
  3. ↑ Szybalski, W. A. (2001). "My road to Øjvind Winge, the father of yeast genetics". Genetics 158 (1): 1–6. PMC 1461622. PMID 11333213.
  4. ↑ Barnett, J. A. (2007). "A history of research on yeasts 10: Foundations of yeast genetics1". Yeast 24 (10): 799–845. doi:10.1002/yea.1513. PMID 17638318.
  5. ↑ Volume jubilaire en l’honneur du professeur Øjvind Winge pour son 70ième anniversaire. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg. Série Physiologique, 26 (1-25): 1-443. 1956.
  6. ↑ Winge, Ö. (1927). "The location of eighteen genes inLebistes reticulatus". Journal of Genetics 18: 1–18. doi:10.1007/BF03052599.
  7. ↑ Winge, O. (1960). "Priority in gene-conversion". Comptes-rendus des travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg 31: 343–347. PMID 13845218.
  8. ↑ "Royal Society: New Foreign Members: Prof. Øjvind Winge". Nature 159 (4046): 668. 1947. doi:10.1038/159668e0.
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