A blueprint most wonderful, the homeobox discovery

This is a personal, non-linear summary of the discovery of the homeobox, a short DNA sequence encoding a DNA-binding domain conserved in developmental control genes. It is based on our recollections, a few decaying lab notebooks and letters, the early research papers we published, and conversations with a few colleagues who were in Basel at the time. It presents a simple story, when the research we did was anything but, with failed experiments, blind alleys and dumb ideas. Homeobox DNA sequences were independently discovered by Matt Scott and Amy Weiner in Thomas Kaufmann’s lab at Indiana University (Scott and Weiner, 1984). The accompanying Perspective from Scott (2024), provides their fascinating story.