Martin Taylor MD PhD

Summary

• I am a physician scientist in gastrointestinal pathology, working since 2018 in the lab of Dr. David M. Sabatini at Whitehead Instititue. My research is in the areas of biochemistry, structural biology, and molecular genetics. I study signaling mechanisms of cell growth and how an organelle called the lysosome is involved in human diseases, including cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.
  
  I trained in the Johns Hopkins Medical Scientist Training Program and earned a PhD in pharmacology, with thesis research in the labs of Drs. Philip Cole and Jef Boeke entitled "Inhibition, Structure, and Function Of Ghrelin-O-Acyltransferase". These studies characterized the metabolism-regulating hormone ghrelin, its acyltransferase, and molecular mechanisms of acylation, and demonstrated potential utility in glucose and weight control by ghrelin inhibition for treatment of obesity and diabetes. Following completion of my doctoral work, I took the opportunity to follow up on a successful pilot experiment with a "post-doc" project in the Boeke lab on LINE-1, and have remained active in the transposon field.
  
  My undergraduate degree is in chemical engineering from Princeton, where I was also on the varsity track team for four years (sprints).