Rate My Professor Bruce Macher

Bruce Macher is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at San Francisco State University, where he has been a faculty member since 1987. He earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Riverside in 1972 and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Riverside in 1976. Before joining San Francisco State University, Macher served as a faculty member in the Cancer Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. His research career has emphasized glycoconjugate biochemistry and the use of mass spectrometry in biochemical studies. More recently, his work has focused on proteomics and cancer, particularly the identification of breast cancer biomarkers through analysis of glycoprotein expression patterns in breast cancer cell lines. Using mass spectrometry, his group has differentiated normal or benign cells from malignant ones and luminal subtypes from basal subtypes. They have also proposed proteomic biomarker signatures consisting of one to three proteins that predict responses to various breast cancer drugs.

Macher's key publications include Macher, B.A. and Yen, T-Y. (2007) Proteins at membrane surfaces—a review of approaches, Molecular BioSystems 3:705-713; McDonald, C.A., Yang, J.Y., Marathe, V., Yen, T-Y., and Macher, B.A. (2009) Combining the results from lectin affinity chromatography and glyco-capture approaches substantially improves the coverage of the glycoproteome, Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 8:287–301; Yen, T-Y., Macher, B.A., McDonald, C.A., Alleyne-Chin, C., and Timpe, L.C. (2012) Glycoprotein Profiles of Human Breast Cells Demonstrate a Clear Clustering of Normal/Benign vs. Malignant Cell Lines and Basal vs. Luminal Cell Lines, Journal of Proteome Research 11:656–667; Yen, T-Y., Dutta, S.M., Litsakos-Cheung, C., Corona, A.A., Timpe, L.C., and Macher, B.A. (2013) Overcoming Challenges and Opening New Opportunities in Glycoproteomics, Biomolecules 3:270-286; and Yen, T-Y., Haste, N., Timpe, L.C., Litsakos-Cheung, C., Yen, R., and Macher, B.A. (2014) Using a Cell Line Breast Cancer Progression System to Identify Biomarker Candidates, Journal of Proteomics 96:173-183. As principal investigator, he led the NIH AREA grant R15CA164929 (2012-2016) on glycoprotein signatures for breast cancer biomarkers and the NSF MRI grant CHE-1228656 (2012-2015) for a high-resolution mass spectrometer. Selected as a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer for 2008-2009, Macher has advanced research infrastructure at the university and supported postdoctoral training programs.