Nicholas Dyson is Professor of Medicine at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

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

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

Cancer Center.

Research

The Dyson Lab studies the

retinoblastoma protein Retinoblastoma (Rb) is a rare form of cancer that rapidly develops from the immature cells of a retina, the light-detecting tissue of the eye. It is the most common primary malignant intraocular cancer in children, and 80% of retinoblastoma cas ...

. 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 Human papillomavirus infection (HPV infection) is caused by a DNA virus from the ''Papillomaviridae'' family. Many HPV infections cause no symptoms and 90% resolve spontaneously within two years. In some cases, an HPV infection persists and r ...

type-16. This result implicated

pRB PRB may refer to: Companies and organizations * Periodic Review Board * Population Reference Bureau * Poudreries Réunies de Belgique, former Belgium armaments manufacturer * PRB (company), Australian Automotive Manufacturer * PRB, French Coatings ...

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 cel ...

is a potent and specific inhibitor of

beta-catenin Catenin beta-1, also known as β-catenin (''beta''-catenin), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''CTNNB1'' gene. β-Catenin is a dual function protein, involved in regulation and coordination of cell–cell adhesion and gene transcrip ...

/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