Gilbert Weidinger: Regeneration researcher

S ome vertebrates, such as fi sh, amphibians, and lizards, have the ability to replace lost limbs and regenerate organs. Regeneration requires the reactivation of signaling molecules that were used during embryonic development. Weidinger has spent his career so far studying aspects of zebrafish embryogenesis, including the role of Wnt signaling molecules (1, 2), and has more recently been investigating how these Wnt pathways are used to rebuild zebra-fi sh fi ns and hearts (3–5). The regenerative capacity of mammals is extremely limited, yet mammals possess many of the developmental signaling molecules that other vertebrates reactivate for regeneration, such as the Wnts. Why is it then that regeneration pathways no longer function in mammals, Weidinger wonders. By learning more about what controls Wnt signaling and its involvement in regeneration in zebrafi sh, he hopes to fi nd clues. After completing his postdoc with Randall Moon at the University of Washington in Seattle in 2006, Wei-dinger moved to the University of Dresden where he now leads his own research group. Did you always want to be a scientist? I don't think so, no. Actually, in high school I was leaning toward politics. Then I was going back and forth deciding whether to study science or politics. In the end, when I went to university (in Salzburg, Austria), I thought, " Okay, I'll go try out both. " In Austria, you can sign up for courses and you don't have to decide immediately what you want to do. I was so excited by my fi rst biology courses, however, that I decided I was not going to do any more politics. After university you did a Ph.D. with Erez Raz in Germany. What made you choose his lab? I really wanted to work with zebrafi sh. In my undergraduate studies, I did a diploma thesis project on Xenopus frogs. We thought back then that this was an old-fashioned model, and it would die out—of course, that hasn't happened. But I thought, like a lot of people, that zebrafi sh might be more versatile than frog, because you can easily do genetic screens. I actually applied for a Ph.D. position with Wolfgang Driever, who was quite famous for his genetic screens in zebra-fi sh. He didn't have a position available, but luckily Erez had just started his own little group in the same department. What was your project? I started a project on …