1942-

German geneticist who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in medicine with Edward Lewis and Eric Wieschaus for their groundbreaking research into the genetic blueprint of the fruit fly. This research may help explain birth defects and miscarriages in humans. By raising and studying the fruit fly, she identified specific genes for specific functions that correlated with human embryonic development. She received her Ph.D. in 1962 and later conducted research at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.