Beginning in the late 1970s, at Columbia University, Wigler, Richard Axel and Saul Silverstein developed methods for engineering animal cells.
[1] These methods are the basis for many discoveries in mammalian genetics, and the means for producing protein therapeutics such as those used to treat heart disease, cancer and strokes.
[14] Following the success with epitope tagging, Wigler and collaborator Joe Sorge patented methods for the creating libraries of genes encoding diverse families of antibody molecules.
[21] In the decade since 2004, Wigler and Jim Hicks at CSHL, together with Anders Zetterberg of the Karolinska Institute, applied methods of copy number analysis for prognostication of breast cancer.
[22] The need for accurate measurement of nucleic acid molecules led to the development of varietal tags,[23] more commonly known as unique molecular identifiers.