Nancy Carrasco

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Nancy Carrasco
Born
Mexico City, Mexico
Alma materSchool of Chemistry, UNAM
School of Medicine, UNAM
SpouseSamuel Zyman
Children1
AwardsPew Award, (1989)

Beckman Young Investigators Award (1991)

Maria Sibylla Merian Award, Germany (1998)

Merck Prize (European Thyroid Association), Poland (2001)

Rose Pitt-Rivers Lecturer at the British Endocrine Society Meeting, Glasgow (2003)

Coleman Fellow in Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University, Israel (2008)

Marshall S. Horwitz Faculty Prize for Research Excellence (2009)

Light of Life Award (2010)

Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2015)

Sidney H. Ingbar Distinguished Lecturer, American Thyroid Association (2016)

Plenary Lecturer, 1st International Meeting on Science, Health, and Gender, Mexico (2018)

Member of the National Academy of Medicine (2020)
Scientific career
FieldsMolecular physiology
Biochemistry

Biophysics

Cell physiology
InstitutionsVanderbilt University
Yale University
Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Nancy Carrasco is a professor in, and the chair of, the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University.[1] Carrasco has conducted research in the fields of biochemistry, biophysics, molecular physiology, molecular endocrinology, and cancer.[2] She cloned the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS), a breakthrough in thyroid pathophysiology with ramifications for many other fields, including structure/function of transport proteins, molecular endocrinology, gene transfer studies, cancer, and public health (she has served on the Environmental Protection Agency's science advisory board).[3][1]

Early life and education[edit]

Carrasco was born in Mexico City, Mexico. She obtained her M.D. from the School of Medicine and her M.S. in Biochemistry from the School of Chemistry at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1980 and 1981, respectively.[4] She subsequently became a postdoctoral fellow at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology[2] in New Jersey, for which she received a Fogarty International Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. She did her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Ronald Kaback.[5] In the course of her postdoctoral work, Carrasco—among other things—generated monoclonal and site-directed polyclonal antibodies against the lactose permease of E. coli. She used these antibodies to determine the topology of the lactose permease in the membrane of E. coli, and identified the proton translocation pathway that provides the driving force for lactose accumulation by E. coli.[5]

Career[edit]

In 1987, Carrasco joined the faculty of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and in 2011 she moved to the Yale School of Medicine.[1] At Yale, in 2018, Carrasco became the C.N.H. Long Professor of Physiology.[6]

In the summer of 2019, Carrasco moved again, this time to Vanderbilt University, where she became the Chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics.[1]

She is a member of the Editorial Board for PNAS.[7]

Sodium/iodide symporter[edit]

Carrasco's research group was the first to clone, and extensively characterize at the molecular level, the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS), the key plasma membrane protein that mediates the active transport of iodide into the thyroid, the lactating breast, and other tissues.[6][1] Carrasco's group has obtained a great deal of mechanistic information on NIS by determining the molecular requirements of this protein at amino acid positions at which mutations have been found in patients. Her group also discovered that, although NIS transports iodide but not chloride (unlike chloride transporters and channels, which transport both), NIS also transports other anions, including the environmental pollutant perchlorate. In addition, her group recently identified an allosteric site in NIS—which, when occupied by an oxyanion such as perchlorate, completely changes the mechanism by which NIS transports iodide. This finding indicates that perchlorate pollution may well be more dangerous to human health than previously thought.

The Carrasco group's NIS knockout mouse has made it possible to generate an animal model of hypothyroidism without the need to use any drugs (e.g., methimazole or propylthiouracil). This animal model has proven to be an extremely valuable tool for investigating the cross-talk between different tissues regulated by the thyroid hormones.

Personal life[edit]

Nancy Carrasco is married to Samuel Zyman, a composer with a degree in medicine from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a doctorate in music composition from the Juilliard School who is now a faculty member at the Juilliard School and at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University.[1] Carrasco and Zyman met on their first day of medical school.[1] They have a son, Erik Zyman, a theoretical syntactician who is a faculty member at the University of Chicago.[8][1]

Awards[edit]

The Pew Award is given based on biomedical research.[16] The Beckman Young Investigators Award is given to young members in the early stages of their careers in chemical and life sciences, providing them with research support.[17] Carrasco was the first person to be awarded the Maria Sibylla Merian Award, given by the Essen College of Gender Studies in 1998.[18] The Light of Life Award is given by the Light of Life Foundation to research that has impacted the understanding of Thyroid cancers.[12] The Sidney H. Ingbar Distinguished Lecturer award is given to individuals who have provided major contributions to the research on thyroid.[19]

Additionally, she serves on the editorial board of The Journal of General Physiology,[20] and has served as the President of the Society of Latin American Biophysicists.[21]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h MacMillan, Leigh. "Carrasco to lead Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics". Vanderbilt University. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  2. ^ a b "Nancy Carrasco, MD". Yale School of Medicine. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  3. ^ Dai, Ge; Levy, Orlie; Carrasco, Nancy (February 1996). "Cloning and characterization of the thyroid iodide transporter". Nature. 379 (6564): 458–460. Bibcode:1996Natur.379..458D. doi:10.1038/379458a0. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 8559252. S2CID 4366019.
  4. ^ a b "Prof. Dr. Nancy Carrasco - Maria Sibylla Merian-Preisträgerin 1998" (in German). Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  5. ^ a b Carrasco, Nancy (2019-02-04). "Mentors: Ron KabackMentors: Ron Kaback". The Journal of General Physiology. 151 (2): 97–99. doi:10.1085/jgp.201912322. ISSN 0022-1295. PMC 6363408. PMID 30674562.
  6. ^ a b "Dr. Nancy Carrasco named C.N.H. Long Professor". YaleNews. 2018-08-29. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  7. ^ "Editorial Board | Oncogene". Nature.
  8. ^ MacMillan, Leigh (August 21, 2018). "Carrasco to lead Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics". Vanderbilt University. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  9. ^ "Nancy Carrasco, M.D." The Pew Charitable Trusts. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  10. ^ "Einstein Researcher Receives 2009 Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award". May 13, 2009. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  11. ^ "Einstein Honors Dr. Nancy Carrasco With Its Third Annual Marshall S. Horwitz Faculty Prize for Research Excellence". February 27, 2009. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  12. ^ a b "LoLF Honorary Awardees". Light of Life Foundation. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  13. ^ "Nancy Carrasco". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  14. ^ "American Thyroid Association Announces 2016 Sidney H. Ingbar Distinguished Lectureship Award Winner". September 21, 2016. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  15. ^ "National Academy of Medicine Elects 100 New Members". National Academy of Medicine. 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  16. ^ "Program Details". pew.org. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  17. ^ "Beckman Young Investigator Program". Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  18. ^ "Maria Sibylla Merian-Prize". www.uni-due.de. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  19. ^ "Sidney H. Ingbar Distinguished Lectureship Award". American Thyroid Association. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  20. ^ Gordon, Sharona E. (2018-02-05). "Looking in the rear-view mirror as we anticipate another 100 yearsReflecting on JGP's mission in 2018". The Journal of General Physiology. 150 (2): 169–174. doi:10.1085/jgp.201811995. ISSN 0022-1295. PMC 5806681. PMID 29367199.
  21. ^ "Dr. Nancy Carrasco named C.N.H. Long Professor". www.myscience.org. 29 August 2018. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
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