Draft:Thomas Martin (pathologist)

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Thomas John "Jack" Martin FRACP FRCPA is an Australian pathologist, emeritus professor of medicine, physician and academic at University of Melbourne, and researcher who, in 1987, by leading a former team of researchers at the same university, discovered a proteinaceous hormone called parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP). In September 2005, further research was conducted by the team of Dengshun Miao and David Goltzman at the Calcium Research Laboratory and Department of Medicine, Royal Victoria Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre, and others.

Martin is a member of Natalie A. Sims's laboratory at Saint Vincent's Institute of Medical Research. He works in the institute's Division of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, and his primary interest is cell biology of bones.

Career
Martin was the director of St Vincent’s Institute from 1988 to 2002.

In September 2005, Martin found that PTHrP produced by osteoblasts is a physiological regulator of bone formation.

In July 2022, Martin and his current team at Natalie Sims's lab, after much research on mice, found that deletion of the gene that codes for a receptor protein called granulocyte colony-stimulating factor receptor (G-CSF) increases physiological dysfunction of cortical bones of mice having hyperactivated STAT3 protein in their bone cells. Cortical bone maturation depends on SOCS3-mediated suppression of IL-6 cytokine-induced STAT3 phosphorylation in osteocytes, the cellular network embedded in bone matrix. They concluded that G-CSF has a major role in replacing condensed trabecular bone with lamellar bone during cortical bone formation.

Awards and honours
In August 2022, an award "TJ Martin Medal" was named in Martin's honour. The medal was awarded to gastroenterologist Chamara Basnayake at St Vincent’s Hospital for his research into the multidisciplinary treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders.