Lewis Wolpert

The French Flag Model

The French flag model represents how embryonic cells receive and respond to genetic information and subsequently differentiate into patterns. Created by Lewis Wolpert [5] in the late 1960?s, the model uses the French tricolor flag as visual representation to show how embryonic cells can interpret genetic code to create the same pattern even when certain pieces of the embryo are removed. Wolpert...

There is no place for the psychoanalytic case report in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

As evidence-based mental health and the randomised controlled trial come to dominate the content of major psychiatric journals, the status and clinical utility of single case reports have been increasingly questioned. Arguably, owing to their subjective, anecdotal nature and unsuitability for rigorous scientific testing, this is particularly true of psychoanalytic case studies. Professor Peter ...

The good fairy godmother of science

Limb Patterning: Reports of Model's Death Exaggerated

The progress zone model for the specification of positional values for patterning the proximodistal axis of the vertebrate limb has been questioned, but the results can be largely reconciled with the old model.

Specifying Positional Information in the Embryo: Looking Beyond Morphogens

Concentration gradients of small diffusible molecules called morphogens are key regulators of development, specifying position during pattern formation in the embryo. It is now becoming clear that additional or alternative mechanisms involving interactions among cells are also crucial for positional specification.