Ian Macara
New CRISPR screening technique developed at Vanderbilt leads to discovery of pathway that may be linked to cancer initiation
Mar. 10, 2021—A new genome-wide CRISPR screening technique conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt University is offering new insights about how tumors in 80 to 90 percent of all cancers grow.
Vanderbilt researchers make counterintuitive discoveries about immune-like characteristics of cells, chemotherapy’s impact on tissue growth
Oct. 15, 2020—Biologists reveal that tissue perturbations by chemotherapy agents promote stem cell expansion and that fibroblast cells exhibit unexpected, immune-like behavior.
International collaboration with Vanderbilt scientists sheds light on rare exocyst mutations that cause severe developmental disabilities in children
Sep. 14, 2020—Mukhtar Ahmed, Christian de Caestecker and Ian Macara, in collaboration with geneticists from Australia and Italy discover novel mutations in the Exocyst, providing new understanding of a critical cellular protein complex.
Wente and Macara named American Society for Cell Biology Fellows
Oct. 10, 2019—Interim Chancellor and Provost Susan R. Wente and Louise B. McGavock Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Ian Macara have been elected 2019 fellows of the American Society for Cell Biology.
The exocyst dynamo
Dec. 14, 2018—Mukhtar Ahmed and colleagues say the methods they employed to understand the mechanisms by which exocysts--protein complexes essential to life--function have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of cell dynamics.
Macara named ‘Pink Tie Guy’ for Komen breast cancer research
Jan. 11, 2018—Ian Macara, PhD, Louise B. McGavock Professor and Chair of Cell and Developmental Biology and co-leader of the Signal Transduction and Chemical Biology Research Program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), has been named one of the Pink Tie Guys for the Susan G. Komen Central Tennessee organization.
15 faculty members elected as AAAS fellows
Nov. 20, 2017—Fifteen Vanderbilt faculty members conducting a range of biomedical and clinical research have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Six of the 15 have received funding through the university’s Trans-Institutional Programs initiative, which facilitates research and teaching collaborations across disciplines and are a core pillar of the university’s Academic Strategic Plan.
Talking epigenetics
Sep. 14, 2017—Ian Macara, Ph.D., left, chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, and Lawrence Marnett, Ph.D., right, dean of Basic Sciences in the School of Medicine, visited with Rockefeller University professor David Allis, Ph.D., last week prior to Allis’ Flexner Discovery Lecture on epigenetics.
Polarity protein role in cell survival
Apr. 27, 2017—Vanderbilt investigators have identified an unexpected link between cell survival and the polarized delivery of proteins to the surface of mammary epithelial cells.
Basic science, extraordinary impact
Oct. 6, 2016—The discoveries that can change the course of human health forever often begin in the tiniest places: in molecules and cells, at the most fundamental intersection of physics, chemistry and biology. Understanding how these cellular and molecular processes work is the focus of basic biomedical research at Vanderbilt.
Breast cancer: finding the smoking gun
Jul. 20, 2016—A new method developed at Vanderbilt may help “inventory” all tumor-promoting genes.
Macara lands award to explore cancer cell behavior
Aug. 13, 2015—Vanderbilt’s Ian Macara, Ph.D., has won an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) — nearly $6.6 million over seven years — to support the “unusual potential” of his research, which seeks to understand and predict cancer cell “behavior.”