After earning his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at McMaster University, Michael Tyers completed postdoctoral training at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, in New York. He began his career as a teacher in 1992, in the Department of Medical Genetics and Microbiology of the University of Toronto, then held the position of Principal Investigator at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute. In 2007, he became Director of the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance and taught systems biology at The University of Edinburgh.
Upon his return to Canada, he joined the IRIC as Principal Investigator of the Systems Biology and Synthetic Biology Research Unit. Michael Tyers is also a Professor in the Department of Medicine of the Université de Montréal.