Christof Niehrs

Leader in the field of developmental signaling, contributing major insights into the Wnt pathway. Niehrs has conceptualized how positive and negative Wnt and BMP signaling events are integrated to establish the body plan of vertebrate embryos. His most important discoveries include finding the Wnt antagonist Dickkopf and showing that it binds to the LRP6 Wnt co-receptor. Niehrs also found that LRP6 activation is triggered by CKI-gamma phosphorylation initiating LRP6 activation, and discovered the secreted protein R-Spondin as a key stimulator of Wnt signaling.