William Dove

William Dove's research analyzed the genetic networks regulating normal and neoplastic growth. He began by analyzing the intricate system regulating DNA replication of the simple bacterial virus lambda. Equally detailed analysis of more complex organisms became feasible as methods emerged, from his laboratory and other ones. He analyzed the regulation of the gene family encoding the tubulin subunits of eukaryotic microtubules over the life cycle of the eukaryotic protist Physarum polycephalum. Since 1990 he worked to develop an analysis of the system regulating the balance between self-renewal and neoplastic growth in the intestinal epithelium of the mouse and rat. Triangulating the transcriptomic analysis among the mouse, rat, and human led to the discovery of a protective action of the cyclicAMP-gated phosphodiesterase PDE4B, overexpressed in the early colonic adenoma and then silenced in the emergent adenocarcinoma. With colleagues at Wisconsin in biochemistry, genetics, radiology, and gastroenterology, he was involved in triangulating the proteomic analysis of serum among the mouse, rat, and human to find candidate serum biomarkers for the early preneoplastic stage of colon cancer in human populations at varying levels of risk.