Brian K. Hall

Brian K. Hall
Born1941
Known forNeural Crest as a Fourth Germ Layer
Scientific career
InstitutionsDalhousie University

Brian Keith Hall FRSC (born 1941) is the George S. Campbell Professor of Biology and University Research Professor Emeritus at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.[1][2][3] Hall has researched and extensively written on bone and cartilage formation in developing vertebrate embryos. He is an active participant in the evolutionary developmental biology (EVO-DEVO) debate on the nature and mechanisms of animal body plan formation. Hall has proposed that the neural crest tissue of vertebrates may be viewed as a fourth embryonic germ layer. As such, the neural crest - in Hall's view - plays a role equivalent to that of the endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm of bilaterian development and is a definitive feature of vertebrates (as hypothesized by Gans and Northcutt[1983]). As such, vertebrates are the only quadroblastic, rather than triploblastic bilaterian animals. In vertebrates the neural crest serves to integrate the somatic division (derived from ectoderm and mesoderm) and visceral division (derived from endoderm and mesoderm) together via a wide range novel vertebrate tissues (bone, cartilage, sympathetic nervous system, etc...).

He has been associated with Dalhousie University since 1968. Since his retirement in 2007, he has been University Research Professor Emeritus and Emeritus Professor of Biology.

  1. ^ Angier, Natalie (31 May 1995). "Modern 'Wolfmen' May Have Inherited Ancient Gene". The New York Times. p. 10. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  2. ^ "Dr. Brian Hall". Dalhousie University. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  3. ^ Somers, Mary (February 13, 2002). "Biologist wins the Kowalevsky Medal". Internet Archive. Dalhousie University. Archived from the original on September 25, 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2011.