Nicholas Dyson is Professor of Medicine at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

, the James and Shirley Curvey MGH Research Scholar and Scientific Director of the

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

Cancer Center.

Research

The Dyson Lab studies the

retinoblastoma protein The retinoblastoma protein (protein name abbreviated pRb; gene name abbreviated ''Rb'', ''RB'' or ''RB1'') is a proto-oncogenic tumor suppressor protein that is dysfunctional in several major cancers. One function of pRb is to prevent excessive ...

. Working as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr.

Ed Harlow Ed Harlow (born 1952) is an American molecular biologist. Harlow received the Ph.D. degree from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in London. Harlow is professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical ...

, Dyson demonstrated that the

can form complexes ''in vitro'' with the E7 oncoprotein of Human papilloma virus type-16. This result implicated

pRB The retinoblastoma protein (protein name abbreviated pRb; gene name abbreviated ''Rb'', ''RB'' or ''RB1'') is a proto-oncogenic tumor suppressor protein that is dysfunctional in several major cancers. One function of pRb is to prevent excessive ...

binding to E7 as a step in human papilloma virus-associated carcinogenesis. More recently, Dyson's group has shown that the transcription factor

E2F1 Transcription factor E2F1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''E2F1'' gene. Function The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the E2F family of transcription factors. The E2F family plays a crucial role in the control of cell ...

is a potent and specific inhibitor of beta-catenin/T-cell factor (TCF)-dependent transcription, and that this function contributes to E2F1-induced apoptosis. As of 2015, Professor Dyson has 140 publications in leading peer-reviewed journals.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyson, Nicholas Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American geneticists Harvard Medical School faculty