About
Professor Nicholas Hayward has studied the molecular genetics of melanoma for over 35 years. He was the first to carry out a linkage scan for melanoma susceptibility genes, to confirm the location of one such gene (CDKN2A), and to report mutations of CDKN2A in Australian families. He played key roles in the identification of CDK4, POT1, ACD, TERF2IP, MITF and TINF2 as melanoma susceptibility genes and in linkage and association scans for melanoma, pigmentation and naevi. Professor Hayward has also contributed significantly to understanding somatic mutations that drive melanocyte neoplasia, including the seminal findings of BRAF mutations in naevi, RAC1 mutations in cutaneous melanoma, and PLCB4 mutations in uveal melanoma.
Area of Interest
The principal focus of the research conducted by Professor Hayward’s group is on the molecular genetics of melanoma, a topic that he has significantly contributed to for more than 30 years. He is a foundation member of the International Melanoma Genetics Consortium (GenoMEL) and the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR).
To further pursue work to better understand the genes underlying melanoma predisposition in the general population, as well as some rare families, Professor Hayward recently established two international consortia: the BAP1 Interest Group Consortium and the Uveal Melanoma Genome-wide Association Study Consortium.
The group’s other complementary key area of interest centres on applying a range of high throughput ‘omics’ technologies to comprehensively characterize the genomic landscape of the various melanoma subtypes. To this end he is a principal investigator of the Australian Melanoma Genome Project, which seeks to characterize the genomic landscape of somatic mutations and chromosomal aberrations in >500 melanomas, covering each of the main histological subtypes.