Tyler Jacks

Tyler Jacks is a David H. Koch Professor of Biology

at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a Tyler Jacks
long-time HHMI investigator, and Founding Director Alma mater Harvard University
of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer University of California, San
Research, which brings together biologists and Francisco
engineers to improve detection, diagnosis, and Scientific career
treatment of cancer.[1] Dr. Jacks is a member of the Fields Cancer Research
board of directors of Thermo Fisher Scientific and
Institutions David H. Koch Institute for
Amgen, two of the major biotechnology corporations
Integrative Cancer Research
in the world.[2][3] He is the President of Break Through
Massachusetts Institute of
Cancer and a member of the Board of Overseers, the
Technology
larger of two governing boards of Harvard
University.[4] Academic Robert Weinberg
advisors

Early life
Tyler Jacks graduated magna cum laude with Highest Honors in biology from Harvard University in
1983[5] and earned a PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco in 1988 under
the guidance of Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus.[6] He then went on to do postdoctoral research at MIT in
the Whitehead Institute in the lab of Robert Weinberg.[7]

Career
He was named an Assistant Professor at MIT in 1992 and Associate Professor with tenure in 1997. In
2000, he was promoted to full Professor standing.[8] He has taught the spring version of introductory
biology (7.013) (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biology/7-013Spring-2006/CourseHome/index.htm) at MIT
with Professor Hazel Sive and currently teaches The Hallmarks of Cancer (7.45) at MIT with Professor
Matthew Vander Heiden.

He served on the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute and is a past president of
the American Association for Cancer Research.[9] He also sits on the board of directors at Thermo Fisher
Scientific, Inc.[10] and Aveo Pharmaceuticals Inc.[11] He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at
T2Biosystems, Inc. and at Epizyme, Inc.[12] He was a founding co-editor of the Annual Review of Cancer
Biology in 2017,[13] serving until 2021.[14]
He is the President of Break Through Cancer, a foundation dedicated to supporting multi-institutional
teams of researchers focused on finding solutions to some of the most difficult to treat cancers.[15]

Research
He has pioneered the use of gene-targeting technology in mice to study cancer-associated genes and to
construct mouse models of many human cancer types.[16] The Jacks lab studies the genetic events that
lead to the development of cancer. The lab focuses on using a series of mouse strains carrying engineered
mutations known to be involved in human cancer. Through loss-of-function and gain-of-function
mutations in tumor suppressor genes as well as the K-ras oncogene, mouse models of many types of
cancer have been constructed, including pancreatic cancer, astrocytoma, endometrioid ovarian cancer,
colorectal cancer, sarcoma, retinoblastoma, and tumors of the peripheral nervous system.[17]

Awards and recognitions

In 1997, he received the Rhoads Award from the American Association for Cancer Research.[18] In 1998,
he won the Amgen Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.[19] He
has also been named a Ludwig Research Scholar in Cancer Biology from Johns Hopkins University. In
2002, he won the Chestnut Hill Award for Excellence in Medical Research, and in 2005 he won the Paul
Marks Prize for Cancer Research. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009.[20] In
2014, he was presented the Hope Funds for Cancer Research Award of Excellence for Basic Research.

References
1. "Boston.com: Local breaking news, sports, weather, and things to do" (http://www.boston.co
m/yourlife/health/articles/2007/10/10/mit_gets_100m_for_cancer_center/).
2. "Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. - Investors - Governance - Board of Directors - Person
Details" (https://ir.thermofisher.com/investors/corporate-governance/board-of-directors/perso
n-details/default.aspx?ItemId=c23ce959-54ce-4f95-8014-5530cc5a32b4).
3. "Tyler Jacks" (https://www.amgen.com/about/leadership/board-of-directors/tyler-jacks).
4. "Board of Overseers" (https://www.harvard.edu/about/leadership-and-governance/board-of-
overseers/).
5. "Tyler Jacks, Director, Aveo Pharmaceuticals Inc" (http://www.spoke.com/info/pEqLOuh/Tyle
rJacks).
6. "Tyler Jacks" (http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/jacks_bio.html).
7. Schroeder, Bendta (26 October 2020). "Tyler Jacks, founding director of MIT's Koch
Institute, to step down" (https://biology.mit.edu/tyler-jacks-founding-director-of-mits-koch-inst
itute-to-step-down/). MIT Department of Biology. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
8. "20 faculty members promoted to full professor" (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2000/promof
ull-0510.html). 10 May 2000.
9. American Association for Cancer Research (http://www.aacr.org/home/about-us/governanc
e/officers.aspx) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110930032809/http://www.aacr.org/
home/about-us/governance/officers.aspx) 2011-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
10. Forbes: Tyler Jacks (https://web.archive.org/web/20100130045956/http://people.forbes.com/
profile/tyler-jacks/128103)
11. Spoke: Tyler Jacks (http://www.spoke.com/info/pEqLOuh/TylerJacks)
12. "Stocks" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120930120518/http://investing.businessweek.com/r
esearch/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=22154084&privcapId=6674952&previousCapI
d=27060813&previousTitle=Merck%20Sharp%20&%20Dohme%20I.A.%20Corporation).
Archived from the original (http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/perso
n.asp?personId=22154084&privcapId=6674952&previousCapId=27060813&previousTitle=
Merck%20Sharp%20&%20Dohme%20I.A.%20Corporation) on September 30, 2012.
13. Jacks, Tyler; Sawyers, Charles (2017). "Introduction" (https://doi.org/10.1146%2Fannurev-c
a-01-121516-100001). Annual Review of Cancer Biology. 1: i. doi:10.1146/annurev-ca-01-
121516-100001 (https://doi.org/10.1146%2Fannurev-ca-01-121516-100001).
14. "Annual Review of Cancer Biology Editorial Committee" (https://www.annualreviews.org/edit
orial-committee/cancer-biology). Annual Reviews. 2022. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
15. Flannery, Russell (8 August 2022). "Break Through Barriers To Drive Progress: Cancer
Moonshot Pathways" (https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2022/08/08/break-throug
h-barriers-to-drive-progress-cancer-moonshot-pathways/?sh=6be907de1f27). Forbes.
Retrieved 21 May 2024.
16. Spoke: Tyler Jacks (http://www.spoke.com/info/pEqLOuh/TylerJacks)
17. "Tyler Jacks" (http://www.mit.edu/~biology/facultyareas/facresearch/jacks.html).
18. "Awards & Honors" (https://news.mit.edu/1997/aandh-0312). MIT News | Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. 12 March 1997. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
19. "Awards and Honors" (https://news.mit.edu/1998/aandh-0225). MIT News | Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. 25 February 1998. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
20. MIT: NAS Members (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/nas-members-0428.html)

Publications
Kumar MS, Lu j, Mercer KL, Golub, TR and Jacks T. 2007. Impaired microRNA processing
enhances cellular transformation and tumorigenesis. Nature Genetics, 39(5):673-677
Shaw AT, Meissner A, Dowdle JA, Crowley D, Magendantz M, Ouyang C, Parisi T,
Rajagopal J, Blank LJ, Bronson RT, Stone JR, Tuveson DA, Jaenisch, R, and Jacks, T.
2007. Sprouty-2 Regulates Oncogenic K-ras in Lung Development and Tumorigenesis.
Genes & Development, 21(6):694-707.
McLaughlin ME, Kruger GM, Slocum KL, Crowley D, Michaud NA, Huang J, Magendantz M,
and Jacks T. 2007. The Nf2 tumor suppressor regulates cell-cell adhesion during tissue
fusion. PNAS,104(9):3261-3266.
Ventura, A, Kirsch DG, McLaughlin ME, Tuveson DA, Grimm J, Lintault L, Newman J,
Reczek EE, Weissleder R and Jacks T. 2007. Restoration of p53 function leads to tumor
regression in vivo. Nature, 445, 661-665
Macpherson D, Conkrite K, Tam M, Mukai S, Mu D, and Jacks T. 2007. Murine bilateral
retinoblastoma exhibiting rapid-onset, metastatic progression and N-myc gene amplification.
EMBO J, 26, 784-794
Carla F. Kim, Erica L Jackson, Amber E Woolfenden, Sharon Lawrence, Imran Babar, Sinae
Vogel, Denise Crowley, Roderick T Bronson, Tyler Jacks 2005. Identification of
bronchioalveolar stem cells in normal lung and lung cancer. Cell, 121(6):823-835.
Alejandro Sweet-Cordero, Sayan Mukherjee, Aravind Subramanian, Han You, Jeff Roix,
Christine Ladd, Todd R. Golub, Tyler Jacks. 2005. An oncogenic Kras expression signature
identified by cross-species gene expression analysis. Nature Genetics, 37 (1), 48-55
Daniela M. Dinulescu, Tan A. Ince, Bradley J. Quade, Sarah A. Shafer, Denise Crowley,
Tyler Jacks. 2005. Role of K-ras and Pten in the Development of Mouse Models of
Endometriosis and Endometrioid Ovarian Cancer. Nature Medicine, 11 (1), 63–70.
 Kenneth P. Olive, David A. Tuveson, Zachary C. Ruhe, Bob Yin, Nicholas A. Willis, Roderick
T. Bronson, Denise Crowley, Tyler Jacks. 2004. Mutant p53 Gain-of-Function in Two Mouse
Models of Li-Fraumeni Syndrome. Cell, 119 (6), 847–860.
Ventura A, Meissner A, Dillon CP, McManus M, Sharp PA, Van Parijs L, Jaenisch R, Jacks T.
2004. Cre-lox-regulated conditional RNA interference from transgenes. PNAS (101):10380-
10385.

External links
Tyler Jacks' lab at MIT (http://web.mit.edu/jacks-lab/)
Koch Institute for Cancer Research homepage (http://web.mit.edu/ki/)
Video of Tyler Jacks: Fundamentals of Cancer Research: Introduction and Overview (http://
mitworld.mit.edu/video/385)

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