Dr. Michael Tyers

Canada Research Chair in Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics
University of Toronto
Tier 1 - January 1, 2001
Health

Research Involves

The genetic basis of cell division

Research Relevance

Since cell division is one of the most basic biological processes, understanding it could point the way to treating diseases such as cancer, in which cell division is uncontrolled.

Dealing with Cell Division - A Problem at the Root of Much Complexity

Cell division would seem to be among the most elementary of all biological processes. But as researchers attempt to understand how living creatures grow and develop in specific ways, they are discovering that cell division is itself an intricate, sophisticated, chain of events.

Unravelling the various aspects of this process should shed new light on important questions, such as the underlying nature of cancer, which is a form of uncontrolled cell division.

Michael Tyers has successfully answered some of the most important of those questions. Using both simple yeasts and mammalian cells as experimental models, he has been able to describe the internal mechanisms that control a cell's decision to divide itself. He has also defined the biochemical pathways that link those mechanisms with environmental factors that can determine whether a cell divides.

As the holder of a Canada Research Chair, Tyers will proceed to study cell division at an even more fundamental level. His approach includes a detailed analysis of the proteins that lie at the heart of a cell's genetic structure. He will employ many of the same techniques that are being used to determine the role of genes, such as altering proteins in order to determine their function.

Tyers will be looking for undiscovered connections between the signals a cell receives from its local environment and its internal development program. This particular signalling activity should reveal the extent to which that program responds to external stimuli under changing conditions.

In particular, Tyers' current focus in on a family of enzymes, called ubiquitin ligases that are central to the decision making processes of cell division. He intends to elucidate how this enzyme family acts on its substrate proteins, and how its action differs between a typical cell and a diseased one. This distinction will reveal essential characteristic of the disease process and open prospects of designing therapeutic agents to counteract abnormal enzyme activity.

For further information, please contact Dr. Michael Tyers using the Email contact form or by phone at 416 586-8371