William J. McGinnis

Distinguished Professor, Section of Cell and Developmental Biology; Herbert Stern Chair in Biology. Contributions to study of genes that control morphological development in animal embryos. Discoveries led to realization that fruit flies and vertebrate animals possess similar set of architectural control genes, providing evidence that the cluster of Drosophila homeotic Hox genes were molecular relatives, and that Hox-like genes existed in the genomes of mice and humans. Research on evolutionary change in leg number from crustacean to insect was first comparative study that linked specific DNA codon mutations to morphological transition in animal evolution.