The 2003 GSA Honors and Awards

The 2003 George W. Beadle Medal

IN recognition of their innovative discoveries and outstanding leadership within the Drosophila research and general scientific communities, the 2003 George W. Beadle Medal is awarded to Gerald M. Rubin and Allan C. Spradling. Gerry and Allan developed seminal techniques that revolutionized molecular genetics in Drosophila and played crucial roles in advocating and implementing the Drosophila Genome Project. They are scientists of vision and creativity who have carried Drosophila research to new levels through their leadership, scientific generosity, outstanding individual research, and commitment to trainees.

Gerry and Allan's first stunning accomplishment marked the start of a remarkable scientific collaboration spanning two decades. While they were both staff members in the Department of Embryology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington they developed a germline transformation method for Drosophila using P-element transposons. This technology was born from the synergism of Gerry's expertise with Drosophila transposons and molecular biology and Allan's knowledge of embryogenesis and development. The ability to generate stable lines of Drosophila carrying a gene of interest revolutionized the field, suddenly permitting developmental control genes to be understood at a molecular level. The manner in which they made this technology freely and immediately available to everyone is a legend within the community, and it reflects their commitment to advancing Drosophila research that makes them so worthy of this award. Allan and Gerry presented the transformation technology at the 1982 National Drosophila Conference, and although the work was not yet in press, brought the plasmid reagents with them to the meeting and freely distributed them.

The success of the Drosophila Genome Project is in large part due to the combined and collaborative efforts of these two scientists. Allan directed genetic screens to mutate the genome by P elements, generating invaluable mutant collections that were made available to the community. This ongoing project is well on its way to generating mutations in the majority of Drosophila genes. Gerry had moved to the University of California at Berkeley in 1983, and he subsequently established the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project (BDGP) in 1991. The impact of BDGP cannot be overstated in that it produced a well-annotated genome and many resources. These include a versatile and accessible website, a physical map of genome contigs, EST library databases, and a Unigene set of cDNAs. Gerry was able to negotiate a collaboration that allowed the physical mapping and sequencing efforts of BDGP to be combined with the whole-genome shotgun sequencing efforts of Celera Genomics, leading to an initial sequence in 2000, at least 2 years ahead of schedule. He also had the vision and determination to ensure that work continued after this initial publication so that the community would have a high-quality, complete sequence of the Drosophila euchromatin. The information and reagents generated by BDGP have been freely available to the community at all stages of the project, with daily or weekly postings of data as they were being generated. Gerry faithfully kept the community abreast of progress and updates on the genome project at the annual national meeting. He also provided copies of the Unigene cDNA set to the community, permitting widespread development of microarrays and genomic technologies.

In addition to the significant technologies Allan and Gerry developed, their independent research programs produced seminal contributions to biology. Gerry's early work provided the foundation for our understanding of transposable elements in Drosophila. His lab deciphered the first tissue-specific transcriptional regulatory elements. In the 1990s, his research on the development of the Drosophila eye defined the role of signal transduction pathways in cell fate determination and differentiation. The methodologies he established for dominant genetic screens led to the discovery that the Ras oncogene is a key downstream effector of the evolutionarily conserved receptor tyrosine kinase signaling pathway. This finding not only helped to define a key signaling network, but also was crucial to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying malignant transformation in mammals. Continued exploitation and improvement of these molecular genetic approaches led to the identification of other signal transduction components as well as genes involved in axon guidance, the cell cycle, and cell death.

Allan's research focused on oogenesis, and he used this as a developmental paradigm to elucidate fundamental concepts in chromosome biology and differentiation. Early in his career Allan found that the chorion genes were amplified in the follicle cells, and he developed this as a model metazoan replicon, identifying both DNA sequence elements necessary for amplification and trans-acting replication proteins. His lab has made important findings on the structure of metazoan chromosomes, on the properties of heterochromatin, and on the formation of polytene chromosomes. His lab carried out large-scale screens for enhancer-trap lines that permitted labeling, and thus identification, of several important cell types in oogenesis. These lines often served as the entry point for cloning genes involved in oogenic cell type interactions. By isolating and analyzing mutants defective in cystoblast divisions, oocyte specification, or nurse cell function, Allan has identified critical regulators for stem cells, a link between cell cycle control and oocyte specification, and provided crucial insights into nurse cell formation and function. This work is distinguished by the application of cell biology to problems in developmental biology or chromosome dynamics, and Allan's lab has always been at the forefront of this approach.

Gerry and Allan's laboratories have been dynamic and exciting, and both investigators provided superb training environments for their students and postdocs. The result is that they have a legacy in the large number of their trainees who are leaders in the Drosophila community. Gerry and Allan conveyed to their students and postdocs their fascination with Drosophila as a model organism and instilled the importance of posing biological questions and then answering them on a molecular level.

In the past few years Allan and Gerry have extended their scientific leadership roles beyond the Drosophila community, Gerry as a Vice President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Allan as Director of the Department of Embryology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Although the wider biological research community is benefiting from their leadership, the Drosophila community remains particularly indebted to these two great scientists, and the Beadle Medal provides a measure of that gratitude.

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