"And it was the worst possible result, because it actually worked:" An interview with Richard Harland

Richard M Harland; John B Wallingford

doi:10.1016/j.cdev.2024.203910

"And it was the worst possible result, because it actually worked:" An interview with Richard Harland

Cells Dev. 2024 Mar 5:203910. doi: 10.1016/j.cdev.2024.203910. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Richard M Harland¹, John B Wallingford²

Affiliations

¹ Dept. of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, United States of America.
² Dept. of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin, United States of America. Electronic address: Wallingford@austin.utexas.edu.

PMID: 38452855
DOI: 10.1016/j.cdev.2024.203910

Abstract

One hundred years ago, Hilde Mangold and Hans Spemann published their seminal paper on what came to be known as The Organizer, but seven decades would pass before the molecular basis of this remarkable phenomenon was revealed. Richard Harland and his laboratory played a key role in that discovery, and in this interview he discusses not just the science and the people but also other important factors like mental health and luck.

Keywords: BMP antagonist; Neural induction; Noggin; Richard Harland; Spemann-Mangold Organizer.