Max Birnstiel
| Max Birnstiel | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 12, 1933 Brazil |
| Died | November 15, 2014 (aged 81) Wollerau, Switzerland |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Fields | Molecular biology |
| Institutions | |
| Alma mater | ETH Zurich |
| Doctoral advisor | Albert Frey-Wyssling |
| Notable students | |
| Known for | Study of eukaryotic gene regulation |
Max Birnstiel (July 12, 1933 – November 15, 2014) was a Swiss molecular biologist who held a number of positions in scientific leadership in Europe, including the chair of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Zurich from 1972–86, and the directorship of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna from 1986 to 1996. His research focused on gene regulation in eukaryotes. His research group is sometimes cited as the first to purify single genes, the ribosomal RNA genes from Xenopus laevis, three years before the successful isolation of the lac operon. He is also recognized for one of the earliest discoveries of a gene enhancer element. Birnstiel died in 2014 of heart failure during cancer treatment.
Birnstiel was born in Brazil in 1933; his father, also Max Birnstiel, was Swiss and his mother, Dalila Varella, was Brazilian. The family moved to Switzerland when the younger Max was five years old, and he was educated in Zurich. He received his Ph.D. in botany in 1959 from ETH Zurich under the supervision of Albert Frey-Wyssling and then became a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology with James Bonner.
In 1963, Birnstiel was recruited by Conrad Waddington to a faculty position in the genetics department at the University of Edinburgh, where he remained until 1972, advancing to the rank of professor. His work at Edinburgh included studying the physical properties of genes, leading to the successful purification of ribosomal RNA genes from Xenopus laevis; this body of work was performed with Ph.D. students Adrian Bird, Michael Grunstein, and Hugh Wallace and led to further study of gene structure in collaboration with Donald Brown. The work has been cited as the first purification of single genes, announced at a meeting in 1965 three years prior to the isolation of the bacterial lac operon, and is noted as a key piece of evidence in establishing the chemical nature of the gene.
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