Davor Solter is a preeminent developmental biologist whose pioneering research has transformed our understanding of genetic regulation in mammalian development. Born in 1941 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, he earned both his M.D. in 1965 and Ph.D. in 1971 from the University of Zagreb where he began his scientific career in the Departments of Anatomy and Biology. He subsequently moved to the United States in 1973, where he held positions at The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and became Wistar Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1984. His distinguished career culminated in his appointment as Director of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany, where he led the Department of Developmental Biology from 1991 through 2006.
Dr. Solter's groundbreaking research on genomic imprinting represents one of the most significant discoveries in modern genetics, demonstrating that parental chromosomes retain a molecular memory of their origin that influences embryonic development. Working independently alongside Azim Surani in the early 1980s at the Wistar Institute, he conducted revolutionary experiments that established the phenomenon of genomic imprinting, proving mammalian embryos require genetic contributions from both parents due to differential gene expression based on parental origin. This paradigm-shifting discovery fundamentally changed our understanding of inheritance, revealing that genetic expression is determined not only by DNA sequence but also by epigenetic modifications established during gametogenesis. His work established the foundation for the field of epigenetics and explained critical developmental mechanisms underlying human genetic disorders including Prader-Willi syndrome and Silver-Russell syndrome.
Dr. Solter's seminal contributions have earned him numerous prestigious accolades including the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology in 1998 and the Rosenstiel Award in 2007, and he was named a 2024 Citation Laureate with recognition as the 2026 recipient of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, awarded jointly with Azim Surani for their discovery of genomic imprinting. Following his directorship at the Max Planck Institute, he served as Research Director at the Institute of Medical Biology in Singapore from 2008 to 2013 and currently holds visiting professorships at Mahidol University in Thailand and the University of Zagreb Medical School. His enduring influence on developmental biology continues through his memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, EMBO, and Academia Europaea, with his discoveries remaining foundational to contemporary research in epigenetics and stem cell science.
