Walter Gilbert

Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard University. Interested in the evolution of the intron/exon structure of genes. Are the introns ancient structures, used to assemble the first genes four billion years ago? Or are they more recent acquisitions, used for exon shuffling in recently evolved proteins? His work ranges from theoretical estimates for the size of the universe of exons to theoretical arguments that the introns are very old and that exons are related to folding subunits of proteins. He is studying the assembling of protein shapes from modular substructures.