Caenorhabditis Elegans - Scientific Community

Scientific Community

In 2002, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Sydney Brenner, H. Robert Horvitz and John Sulston for their work on the genetics of organ development and programmed cell death in C. elegans. The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Andrew Fire and Craig C. Mello for their discovery of RNA interference in C. elegans. In 2008, Martin Chalfie shared a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on green fluorescent protein in C. elegans.

Because all research into C. elegans essentially started with Sydney Brenner in the 1970s, many scientists working in this field share a close connection to Brenner, having either worked as a post-doctoral or post-graduate researcher in Brenner's lab or in the lab of someone who previously worked with Brenner. Because most people who worked in his lab went on to establish their own worm research labs, there is now a fairly well documented "lineage" of C. elegans scientists. This lineage was recorded in some detail at the 2003 International Worm Meeting and the results were stored in the WormBase database.