Thaddeus Dryja
American medical researcher
Thaddeus P. Dryja is an American ophthalmologist and geneticist known for his role in the 1986 discovery of the retinoblastoma (Rb) tumor suppressor gene. and the 1990 discovery of mutations in the rhodopsin gene as the cause of autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (the first identified gene for non-syndromic retinitis pigmentosa). He was the David G. Cogan Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard University and was the Global Head of Ophthalmology Research at Novartis. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1996.
Education
Dryja graduated from Yale College in 1972 with a B.A. in chemistry and from Yale University Medical School with an MD in 1976. He interned at Waterbury Hospital in Connecticut from 1976 to 1977. He was a research fellow in experimental eye pathology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School from 1977 to 1978. He completed an ophthalmology residency at Harvard Medical School in 1981. From 1981 to 1983 he was a research fellow in genetics and ophthalmology at the Children's Hospital Medical Center, Harvard Medical School.
Career
In 1983 Dryja joined the faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, becoming a full professor in 1992.
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