Citation | Distinguished for his seminal work on fibronectin, a large, external protein of cells that promotes cellular adhesion. His finding that loss of fibronectin from oncogenically transformed cells is involved in their altered structure and adhesion caused much excitement. Hynes made an important breakthrough in determining that fibronectin is connected across the cell membrane to intracellular actin bundles via one of fibronectin's discrete binding domains. In 1983 Hynes made the discovery that alternative splicing produced 12-20 different fribronectin mRNA and protein species from one gene, an early example of this important process. Hynes and his colleagues were first to clone a receptor molecule that connects fibronectin across the membrane to actin. These studies are fundamental to understanding embryonic development, cell migration, and oncogenic transformation. |