Dr. Nancy Carrasco named C.N.H. Long Professor

Dr. Nancy Carrasco, who has been appointed the C.N.H. Long Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, is a leader in the study of cell membrane transporters. She was the first scientist 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 in the thyroid, lactating breast, and other tissues. Her research team also discovered that functional NIS is endogenously expressed in breast cancer and its metastases, suggesting that NIS-mediated radioiodide therapy may be effective in treating breast cancer. Carrasco's research team has shown that NIS actively transports the anion perchlorate, an environmental pollutant, revealing that the health effects of exposure to perchlorate are more serious than previously thought. By analyzing NIS mutations that cause congenital iodide transport defect, Dr. Carrasco and her group have identified key NIS residues involved in substrate selectivity, substrate specificity, and stoichiometry-discoveries that may make it possible to optimize the clinical use of NIS and extend it beyond thyroid disease. Her wider research interests include regulation of membrane proteins, molecular endocrinology and metabolism, and thyroid cancer and breast cancer. Carrasco earned her M.D. and M.S. (in biochemistry) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.