Thaddeus Dryja

Who is Thaddeus Dryja?

Thaddeus P. Dryja, MD is a physician and noted biomedical researcher. A 1976 graduate of Yale Medical School, he specializes in ophthalmology and is recognized for his 1986 discovery of the Rb tumor suppressor gene, mutations in which lead to a cancer of the eye known as retinoblastoma. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1996, and currently is Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. He led a research group at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, where his group identified the first gene to cause typical retinitis pigmentosa. In 2006 he started work at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, where he currently is Vice President and Global Head of Ophthalmology Research.