Rate My Professor Martin Dyer

Professor Martin Dyer is the Professor of Haemato-Oncology at the University of Leicester and Director of the Ernest and Helen Scott Haematological Research Institute within the Leicester Cancer Research Centre. He earned a first-class honours degree in Physiological Sciences from Worcester College, Oxford, in 1977, followed by a DPhil from the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford, investigating expression of cell surface molecules on haemopoietic stem cells using monoclonal antibodies. He subsequently studied medicine at King’s College, Cambridge, graduating in January 1983, and obtained Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) in 1985 after postgraduate training in Southampton.

Dyer's career encompasses an MRC Clinical Fellowship in Cambridge, where he contributed to the development of the humanised monoclonal antibody CAMPATH-1H (alemtuzumab), Mere’s Senior Medical Fellowship at St John’s College in 1987, and the Leukaemia Research Fund Bennett Senior Lectureship at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, from 1990 to 2001. During this period, he demonstrated the efficacy of alemtuzumab in T-prolymphocytic leukaemia, identified ATM mutations as the first in a sporadic malignancy, and pioneered molecular cloning of chromosomal translocations involving BCL genes using long-distance inverse PCR. He held a Louise Buchanan Fulbright Fellowship at Stanford University Department of Pathology from 1996 to 1997 and joined the University of Leicester in 2001, establishing lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia clinics at Leicester Royal Infirmary and leading early-phase clinical studies through the HOPE Clinical Trial Unit. His research specialises in lymphoid malignancies, focusing on targeted therapies including BCL2 and BTK inhibitors, T-cell redirecting bispecific antibodies, and BH3 mimetics such as venetoclax and navitoclax. With 307 publications, over 31,541 citations, an H-index of 95, and an i10-index of 282 as of August 2022, key works include 'Phase 1 clinical trial of ONO/GS-4059 in relapsed B-cell malignancies' (Blood, 2016), 'Long-term follow-up of patients with CLL treated with ONO/GS-4059' (Blood, 2017), 'Efficacy of vemurafenib in hairy-cell leukemia' (New England Journal of Medicine, 2014), and 'Specific interactions of BCL-2 family proteins mediate sensitivity to BH3-mimetics in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma' (Haematologica, 2020). Dyer's contributions have advanced precision medicine in haemato-oncology through collaborations with Roche Pharma and Isogenica on novel antibodies and small molecules.