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Email

mmatzuk@bcm.edu

Positions

Department Chair

Pathology & Immunology
²ÝÁñÉçÇøÈë¿Ú

Stuart A. Wallace Chair, Robert L. Moody, Sr. Chair, and Professor

Pathology & Immunology
²ÝÁñÉçÇøÈë¿Ú

Director

Center for Drug Discovery
²ÝÁñÉçÇøÈë¿Ú

Deputy Director

Clinical Chemistry
Ben Taub Hospital

Professor

Molecular and Human Genetics
²ÝÁñÉçÇøÈë¿Ú

Professor

Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
²ÝÁñÉçÇøÈë¿Ú

Professor

Molecular & Cellular Biology
²ÝÁñÉçÇøÈë¿Ú

Member

Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
²ÝÁñÉçÇøÈë¿Ú

Education

BA from University Of Chicago (with Honors)

06/1982 - Chicago, IL United States

PhD from Washington University School of Medicine

12/1989 - St. Louis, MO United States

MD from Washington University School Of Medicine

12/1989 - St. Louis, Missouri United States

Postdoctoral Fellowship at Baylor College Of Medicine

06/1993 - Houston, Texas United States

Residency at Hospital of the University Of Pennsylvania

04/1991 - Philadelphia, PA United States

Honors & Awards

Member of the National Academy of Sciences

04/2014

Member of The Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Science of Texas (TAMEST)

04/2014

Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors

12/2016

Inaugural Hill Prize in Medicine

Lyda Hill Philanthropies and TAMEST (02/2024)

Carl G. Hartman Award

Society for the Study of Reproduction (07/2022)

Inaugural Distinguished Fellow

Society for the Study of Reproduction (07/2021)

NIH MERIT Award

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (05/2001 - 04/2011)

Distinguished Alumnus Award

²ÝÁñÉçÇøÈë¿Ú (03/2019)

Trainee Mentoring Award

The Society for the Study of Reproduction (07/2015)

5th Int’l Fundacion IVI Award for Best Basic Research Record in Reproductive Medicine

04/2013

The Roy O. Greep Award

The Endocrine Society (06/2010)

Pfizer Outstanding Investigator Award

American Society for Investigative Pathology (04/2002)

The HypoCCS Award

Eli Lilly (11/1999)

The Inaugural Ernst Knobil Lecture

University of Pittsburgh (10/1998)

The Richard E. Weitzman Memorial Award

The Endocrine Society (06/1996)

The Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Excellence in Research Award

²ÝÁñÉçÇøÈë¿Ú (11/1995)

Experimental Pathologist-in-Training Award

American Society for Investigative Pathology (04/1993)

John R. Rainey, M.D. Research Award

Texas Society of Pathology (02/1993)

Dr. Philip Needleman Prize for Excellence in Pharmacology Research

Washington University School of Medicine (05/1990)

Professional Interests

• Chemical biology and drug discovery
• Mammalian reproduction, endometriosis, germ cell biology, infertility, and contraception
• TGF-beta and cell signaling networks in female reproduction

Professional Statement

I am a reproductive biologist, a clinical pathologist, Director of ²ÝÁñÉçÇøÈë¿Ú’s Center for Drug Discovery, Deputy Director of the Clinical Chemistry laboratory at Ben Taub Hospital, and Chair of the Department of Pathology & Immunology. As a faculty member at Baylor during the last 30 years, I have directly mentored over 50 students, postdoctoral fellows, and medical fellows, including 13 underrepresented minority trainees, and I was the recipient of the 2015 Trainee Mentoring Award from the Society for the Study of Reproduction. My 16 Ph.D. students have averaged over 9 papers as part of their training in my laboratory, and my trainees have received multiple honors and moved on to research and leadership positions in academia and the biotech industry. I have been a member of the National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council, am discipline chair of the National Academy of Sciences Animal Genetics and Physiology Section (Section 61), chaired the NIH CMIR study section and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund CABS and CAMS review panels, and was a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors at Science. I have published more than 400 papers (including over 25 papers in Cell, Nature, and Science journals), generated >200 mouse models, lectured at >180 symposia in 27 countries, and have been supported continuously by the NIH since 1991. I am an inventor on 13 patents for my biomedical research discoveries, including ELONVA, a long-acting follicle stimulating hormone biologic that I helped to develop. As shown on this page, I have multiple additional honors from the Society for the Study of Reproduction (2002 SSR Research Award, 2021 Fellow of the SSR, and 2022 Carl G. Hartman Award) as well as the Endocrine Society (The Richard E. Weitzman Memorial Award and The Roy O. Greep Award), received the IVI Foundation’s 5th International Award for Best Basic Research Record in Reproductive Medicine, and was awarded a prestigious NIH MERIT award. For my career contributions to reproductive medicine, drug discovery, TGFβ family signaling, and ovarian cancer, I was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science, and Technology (TAMEST) in 2014 and as a Fellow in the National Academy of Inventors in 2016, and I received the inaugural Hill Prize in Medicine from TAMEST in 2024 for drug development research in endometriosis.

Research in my laboratory is focused on 1) using functional genomics to investigate essential fertility pathways, reproductive tract cancers, and TGFβ superfamily signaling in mammals, and 2) applying chemical biology approaches to develop lead compounds for endometriosis, contraception, cancer, and debilitating diseases. My collaborative group has created hundreds of unique transgenic mouse models to study fertility, development, and ovarian cancer and to decipher the crosstalk of TGFβ family, hormonal, and small RNA signaling pathways in normal and diseased reproductive tissues and their roles during pregnancy. Based on Google Scholar, my h-index is 125, and more than 20 papers have been cited over 600 times. I was the first to show that a secreted protein (inhibin) could function as a tumor suppressor in vivo, demonstrate that an oocyte-secreted protein (GDF9) could regulate somatic cell function and fertility in vivo, uncover a small molecule (JQ1) that specifically targets male germ cells to induce a reversible contraceptive effect, and uncover a epididymis-specific protease, ovochymase 2, that is required for sperm maturation. To rapidly and cost-effectively develop lead compounds in academia, we established a DNA-Encoded Chemistry Technology (DEC-Tec) platform; our team has synthesized >70 DNA-encoded chemical libraries containing >7 billion diverse small molecules, has innovated in developing a novel bioinformatic analysis pipeline and DNA-compatible chemical reactions for producing unprecedented libraries, and has screened these libraries to uncover low nanomolar drug-like inhibitors and novel chemical matter.

Websites

Selected Publications

• Modukuri, RK, Monsivais, D, Li, F, Palaniappan, M, Bohren, KM, Tan, Z, Ku, AF, Wang, Y, Madasu, C, Li, JY, Tang, S, Miklossy, G, Palmer, SS, Young, DW, and Matzuk, MM "." Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 2023;66:2143-2160. Pubmed PMID:
• Kiyozumi, D., Noda, T., Yamaguchi, R., Tobita, T., Matsumura, T., Shimada, K., Kodani, M., Kohda, T., Fujihara, Y., Ozawa, M., Yu, Z., Miklossy, G., Bohren, K., Horie, M., Okabe, M., Matzuk, M.M., and Ikawa, M. "." Science. 2020 Jun;368:1132-1135. Pubmed PMID:
• Dawadi, S., Simmons, N., Miklossy, G., Bohren, K.M., Faver, J.C., Ucisik, M.N., Nyshadham, P., Yu, Z., and Matzuk, M.M. "." Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2020 Jul;117(29):16782-16789. Pubmed PMID:
• Peng J, Li Q, Wigglesworth K, Rangarajan A, Kattamuri C, Peterson RT, Eppig JJ, Thompson TB, Matzuk MM "." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.. 2013;110(8):E776-85. Pubmed PMID: