Lewis, Edward B. (1918-2004), was an American biologist whose studies of fruit flies deepened scientists’ understanding of the development of all animal embryos, including those of human beings. He shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with two other biologists, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard of Germany and Eric F. Wieschaus of the United States.
Lewis was born on May 20, 1918, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1939 and received a Ph.D. degree in genetics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1942. Lewis joined the faculty of Caltech in 1946 and spent his entire career there, teaching and doing research in genetics. He became an emeritus professor in 1988.
Lewis began his research in the 1940’s by breeding fruit flies and exposing them to radiation to cause mutations (genetic changes). He discovered a cluster of genes that guide the development of each segment of the fly’s body, such as the head and abdomen. By causing mutations in certain genes, he found that he could produce flies with extra body parts or other abnormal features, such as an extra pair of wings or legs. The Nobel committee said that Lewis’s research could help explain the causes of human birth defects. Lewis died on July 21, 2004.
