Jason MacGurn received his Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from The University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of California, San Francisco. Following completion of his Ph.D. thesis, Jason pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University, where he used biochemical and cell biological approaches to study how proteins in the cell are targeted and trafficked for degradation. In August 2013, Jason began his position as Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

His main research objective is to understand mechanisms of cellular protein degradation and how these mechanisms are dysregulated in the context of human cancer progression. Since arriving at Vanderbilt, Jason and his team have used a variety of biochemical, proteomic, and live cell imaging methodologies to discover new degradation pathways that target proteins important for cancer progression. By leveraging the mechanistic understanding generated from these studies, his long-term goal is to discover small molecules with the ability to activate specific protein degradation pathways and explore their potential therapeutic value for the treatment of cancer.

Jason has been the recipient of the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, the NIH Pathway to Independence Award, a Sam and Nancy Fleming Fellowship, and an NSF-GRP Fellowship.