Michael A. Dyer, PhD

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.