Michael Dyer, PhD

    Michael A. Dyer, PhD

    Member, St. Jude Faculty

    Director, Division of Developmental Biology
    Co-Leader, Developmental Biology and Solid Tumor Program
    HHMI Early Career Scientist


    Departments

    Developmental Neurobiology

    Divisions

    Developmental Biology

    Contact Information

    Michael Dyer, PhD
    Developmental Neurobiology
    MS 324, Room D2039D
    St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
    262 Danny Thomas Place
    Memphis, TN 38105-3678
    Email: michael.dyer@stjude.org
    Phone: (901) 595-2257
    FAX: (901) 595-7641

    Education

    PhD - Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts


    Honors & Awards


    Research Interests

    Michael Dyer received his bachelor’s degree with honors from UCLA in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. For his doctoral training, Dr. Dyer went to Harvard University where he studied globin gene switching during hematopoiesis with Dr. Margaret Baron. After completing his degree, he moved to Harvard Medical School for a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Connie Cepko. In Connie’s lab he became interested in the regulation of retinal progenitor cell proliferation during neurogenesis. In 2002, Dr. Dyer was recruited to the department of Developmental Neurobiology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. At St. Jude, he expanded his interest in neural progenitor cell proliferation to include cancer biology, evolutionary biology and stem cell biology. In 2005, he was promoted to Associate Member and in 2008 he was promoted to Member at St. Jude. He has received numerous awards since joining the faculty at St. Jude including being named a Pew Scholar, the Cogan Award Recipient and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist. In 2009, Dr. Dyer was named co-leader of the Solid Tumor Program in the NCI designated comprehensive cancer center at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and in 2011 he was named head of the Division of Developmental Biology.

    Dyer lab


    Selected Publications

    Cheung NK, Zhang J, Lu C, Parker M, Bahrami A, Tickoo SK, Heguy A, Pappo AS, Federico S, Dalton J, Cheung IY, Ding L, Fulton R, Wang J, Chen X, Becksfort J, Wu J, Billups CA, Ellison D, Mardis ER, Wilson RK, Downing JR, Dyer MA. St Jude Children's Research Hospital–Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project. Association of age at diagnosis and genetic mutations in patients with neuroblastoma. JAMA Mar 14;307(10):1062-71, 2012. (PMCID:PMC3527076)

    Zhang J, Benavente CA, McEvoy J, Flores-Otero J, Ding L, Chen X, Ulyanov A, Wu G, Wilson W, Wang J, Brennan R, Rusch M, Manning AL, Ma J, Easton J, Shurtleff S, Mullighan C, Pounds S, Mukatira S, Gupta P, Neale G, Zhao D, Lu C, Fulton RS, Fulton LL, Hong X, Dooling DJ, Ochoa K, Naeve C, Dyson NJ, Mardis ER, Bahrami A, Ellison D, Wilson RK, Downing J, Dyer MA. A Novel Retinoblastoma Therapy from Genomic and Epigenetic Analyses. Nature Jan 11;481(7381):329-34, 2012. doi: 10.1038/nature10733. PMCID:PMC3289956. Faculty of 1000 (F1000)

    McEvoy J, Flores-Otero J, Zhang J, Nemeth K, Brennan RC, Rodriguez-Galindo C, Wilson M, Xiong S, Lozano G, Sage J, Fu L, Louhibi L, Trimarchi J, Pani A, Smeyne R, Johnson D, Dyer MA. Coexpression of Normally Incompatible Developmental Pathways in Retinoblastoma, Cancer cell. Cancer Cell Aug 16;20(2):260-75, 2011. Faculty of 1000 (F1000)

    Brennan RC, Federico S, Bradley C, Zhang J, Flores-Otero J, Wilson M, Stewart CF, Zhu F, Guy K, Dyer MA. Targeting the p53 Pathway in Retinoblastoma with Subconjunctival Nutlin-3a. Cancer Res Apr 22, 2011. [Epub ahead of print]. PMCID: PMC3116943. Faculty of 1000 (F1000)

    Nemeth K, Federico S, Angel MC, Shen Y, Schaiquevich P, Zhang J, Egorin M, Stewart C, Dyer MA. Subconjunctival Carboplatin and Systemic Topotecan Treatment in Preclinical Models of Retinoblastoma. Cancer Jan 15;117(2):421-34, 2011. PMCID: PMC3000447.

    Reed D, Shen Y, Shelat AA, Arnold LA, Ferreira AM, Zhu F, Mills N, Smithson DC, Regni CA, Bashford D, Cicero SA, Schulman BA, Jochemsen AG, Guy RK, Dyer MA. Identification and characterization of the first small molecule inhibitor of MDMX. Biol Chem 285(14):10786-96, 2010. (Epub 2010 Jan 15, 2010 Apr 2). PMCID: PMC2856285.

    Laurie N, Mohan A, McEvoy J, Reed D, Zhang J, Schweers B, Ajioka I, Valentine V, Johnson D, Ellison D, Dyer MA. Changes in retinoblastoma cell adhesion associated with optic nerve invasion. Mol Cell Biol Dec;29(23):6268-82, 2009. Epub 2009 Sep 28. PMCID: PMC2786692

    Dyer MA, Martins R, da Silva Filho M, Muniz JA, Silveira LC, Cepko CL, Finlay BL. Developmental sources of conservation and variation in the evolution of the primate eye. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA Jun 2;106(22):8963-8968, 2009. Epub 2009 May 18.

    Cicero SA, Johnson D, Reyntjens S, Frase S, Connell S, Chow LM, Baker SJ, Sorrentino BP, Dyer MA. Cells previously identified as retinal stem cells are pigmented ciliary epithelial cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA Apr 21;106(16):6685-90, 2009. Epub 2009 Apr 3.

    Martins RAP, Zindy F, Donovan S, Zhang J, Pounds S, Knoepfler PS, Eisenman RN, Roussel M, Dyer MA. N-myc coordinates retinal growth with eye size during mouse development. Genes and Development 15;22(2):179-193, 2008. PMCID: PMC2192753

    MacPherson D, Dyer MA. Retinoblastoma: from the two-hit hypothesis to targeted chemotherapy. Cancer Res 67(16):7547-50, 2007.

    Johnson DA, Zhang J, Frase S, Dyer MA. Neuronal differentiation and synaptogenesis in retinoblastoma. Cancer Res 67(6):2701-11, 2007.

    Laurie N, Donovan S, Gray J, Fuller C, Johnson D, Wilson M, Rodriguez-Galindo C, Marine J-C, Jochemsen AG, Mendrysa S, Dyer MA. Inactivation the p53 pathway in retinoblastoma. Nature 444:61-66, 2006.

    Johnson D, Donovan S, Dyer MA. Mosaic deletion of Rb arrests rod differentiation and stimulates ectopic synaptogenesis in the mouse retina. J Comp Neurol 498:112-128, 2006.

    Donovan SL, Schweers BA, Zhang J, Martins RA, Johnson DJ, Dyer MA. Compensation by tumor suppressor genes during retinal development in mice and humans. BMC Biology 4:14 (open access), 2006.

    Laurie NA, Gray JK, Zhang J, Leggas M, Relling M, Egorin M, Stewart C, Dyer MA. Topotecan combination chemotherapy in two new rodent models of retinoblastoma. Clin Cancer Res 11:7569-7578, 2005.

    Dyer MA, Bremner R. The search for the retinoblastoma cell of origin. Nat Rev Cancer 5:91-101, 2005.

    Zhang J, Gray J, Wu L, Leone G, Rowan S, Cepko CL, Zhu X, Craft CM, Dyer MA. Rb regulates proliferation and rod photoreceptor development in the mouse retina. Nat Genet 36:351-360, 2004.

    Last update: February 2013