Wolfgang Holzgreve is indeed an out-of-the-ordinary researcher, scientific innovator and teacher; as well as a prolific writer and leader in his various fields of research in perinatal medicine, prenatal diagnostic procedures, and clinical and molecular genetics. Much of his current work centered around stem cell research and the retrieval of fetal cells and free fetal DNA from maternal blood, and cytogenentic diagnosis using these cells. In the mid-1990s he had pioneered the detection of fetal DNA in maternal blood by PCR. transabdominal first trimester embryoscopy as a tool to early in-utero stem cell transplantation and gene therapy was also ground breaking. Earlier he had also published on important and innovative pioneering work and techniques on amniocentesis, chorionic villi sampling, cytogenetic diagnosis, fetal reduction, placental biopsy, and in-utero fetal therapy.
His publications had numbered more than 500 articles in important peer-reviewed scientific journals, 180 book chapters, 6 books, 400 abstracts at scientific meetings, and more than 400 oral presentations at postgraduate courses and seminars! Holzgreve is on the editorial Board of many important journals and is a reviewer for the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Journal of Pediatrics, Prenatal Diagnosis, Human Genetics, Journal of Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology, American Journal of Medical Genetics, Schweizerische Medizinische Wochenschrift, Gene, and Human Reproduction. These appointments demonstrated the span and weight of his work. He is presently Editor in Chief of the journals: Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy and Zeitschrift für Geburtshilfe und Neonatologie Reproduktionsmedizin.