David E. Fisher

Dr. David Fisher is the chairman of the Department of Dermatology and director of the Melanoma Program and the Cutaneous Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School. He is also the Edward Wigglesworth Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Fisher is an expert in molecular oncology with particular emphasis on the biology of melanocytes and their involvement in malignant melanoma. He and his lab team carried out seminal research on melanocyte development, signaling, and transcription. Together, they identified microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) as the master transcriptional regulator of melanocyte differentiation/pigmentation, elucidated the UV-tanning pathway in skin, and collaborated extensively to study the potential clinical applications. Dr. Fisher discovered several human oncogenes and generated an immunohistochemical reagent used worldwide for melanoma diagnosis. He has also studied novel skin cancer prevention strategies based on models of red-hair/fair-skinned high-risk susceptibility.