Walter Fiers (31 January 1931 in

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality ...

West Flanders West Flanders ( nl, West-Vlaanderen ; vls, West Vloandern; french: (Province de) Flandre-Occidentale ; german: Westflandern ) is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the No ...

– 28 July 2019 in Destelbergen) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

molecular biologist. He obtained a degree of Engineer for Chemistry and Agricultural Industries at the

University of Ghent Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

in 1954, and started his research career as an enzymologist in the laboratory of

Laurent Vandendriessche Laurent may refer to: *Laurent (name), a French masculine given name and a surname **Saint Laurence (aka: Saint ''Laurent''), the martyr Laurent **Pierre Alphonse Laurent, mathematician **Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent, amateur astronomer, discoverer ...

in Ghent. In 1956–57, he worked with in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

(

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

). In 1960, he obtained a fellowship from the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropy, philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, aft ...

and joined the group of Bob Sinsheimer as a postdoc. At the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

Walter Fiers was exposed to

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and phys ...

, which was then just developing, studying viral DNA. He demonstrated the physical, covalently closed circularity of

Bacteriophage A bacteriophage (), also known informally as a ''phage'' (), is a duplodnaviria virus that infects and replicates within bacteria and archaea. The term was derived from "bacteria" and the Greek φαγεῖν ('), meaning "to devour". Bac ...

PhiX-174 DNA. In 1962, Fiers moved to

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, to work in the laboratory of future

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make o ...

, Gobind Khorana. At the end of 1962, Fiers returned to Belgium and set up the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Ghent. His research involved Bacteriophage MS2; he was the first to establish the complete nucleotide sequence of a gene (1972) and of a viral genome (

bacteriophage MS2 Bacteriophage MS2 (''Emesvirus zinderi''), commonly called MS2, is an icosahedral, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that infects the bacterium ''Escherichia coli'' and other members of the Enterobacteriaceae. MS2 is a member of a family ...

)(1976). In 1978 Fiers and his team were the first to reveal the complete nucleotide-sequence of

SV40 SV40 is an abbreviation for simian vacuolating virus 40 or simian virus 40, a polyomavirus that is found in both monkeys and humans. Like other polyomaviruses, SV40 is a DNA virus that has the potential to cause tumors in animals, but most often ...

. The development of totally new procedures and knowledge led to the ability to clone almost any gene and to replicate these efficiently into bacteria or in other

heterologous The term heterologous has several meanings in biology. Gene expression In cell biology and protein biochemistry, heterologous expression means that a protein is experimentally put into a cell that does not normally make (i.e., express) that ...

hosts. In 1997 Fiers retired and became Professor Emeritus, the following year he retired from his position as director of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Together with

Xavier Saelens Xavier Saelens (born 1965) is a Belgian scientist and currently his main research interest is finding a universal influenza vaccine. He is a lecturer in Virology and Group Leader of the Molecular Virology Unit at the University of Ghent ( Ghent, ...

and their team, he continued his research, to find a universal

influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptom ...

vaccine, based on the

M2 protein The Matrix-2 (M2) protein is a proton-selective viroporin, integral in the viral envelope of the influenza A virus. The channel itself is a homotetramer (consists of four identical M2 units), where the units are helices stabilized by two disulfide ...

on the surface of the influenza A virus. The ectodomain of the M2 protein remains unchanged in all human influenza viruses known, including the strains that caused the

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of in ...

s in the last century, which makes it eligible for a universal influenza A vaccine.De Filette M, Ramne A, Birkett A, Lycke N, Löwenadler B, Min Jou W, Saelens X, Fiers W, The universal influenza vaccine M2e-HBc administered intranasally in combination with the adjuvant CTA1-DD provides complete protection, Vaccine. 2006 January 30;24(5):544–51

Awards

* 1975
The Dr. A. De Leeuw-Damry-Bourlart Excellence prize
* 1976: Francqui Prize for Exact Sciences. * 1986:

Beijerinck Virology Prize The M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize (''M.W. Beijerinck Virologie Prijs'') is a prize in virology awarded every two years by the ''Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen'' (KNAW). The prize consists of a medal and a monetary award of € ...

. * 1989:

Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology The Carlos J. Finlay Prize is a biennial scientific prize sponsored by the Government of Cuba and awarded since 1980 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to people or organizations for their outstanding ...

. * 1989: Artois-Baillet Latour Health Prize. * 1991:

Robert Koch Prize The Robert Koch Medal and Award are two prizes awarded annually by the German for excellence in the biomedical sciences. These awards grew out of early attempts by German physician Robert Koch to generate funding to support his research into the ...

References

* UGent - Academic bibliography, list of publications of Walter Fier
Walter Fiers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiers, Walter 1931 births 2019 deaths People from Ypres Belgian molecular biologists Flemish scientists Ghent University alumni Phage workers

Awards

See also

References