Rate My Professor Jamey Marth

Marth's research specializes in nanomedicine and bioengineering to investigate fundamental biology and disease mechanisms, particularly the roles of protein glycosylation in physiological processes and pathologies including diabetes, sepsis, autoimmunity, colitis, and cancer. He pioneered glycoimmunology by showing how glycosylation alterations trigger immune dysregulation and chronic inflammation via cryptic immature glycan linkages. Key innovations include the first application of Cre-loxP recombination to mouse transgenesis for conditional gene targeting, now a cornerstone technology, and generation of mouse models with dysfunctional N-glycan genes (Mgat1, Mgat2, Mgat3, Mgat4a, Man2a1) and sialyltransferases, revealing essential functions in embryogenesis, hemostasis, and sepsis via the Ashwell-Morell receptor for desialylated protein clearance. His studies overturned prior views on Type 2 diabetes by demonstrating acquired beta cell dysfunction from obesity-induced glycosylation changes affecting GLUT2 stability. Marth deposited a large collection of glycan mouse strains at The Jackson Laboratory. He received the 2017 Karl Meyer Award from the Society for Glycobiology for linking glycans to diabetes, lupus, and sepsis, and major funding including a $13.5 million NIH grant in 2021 for sepsis pathogenesis and a $3.5 million grant in 2014. At UCSB, he developed curricula in cell biology and bioengineering introducing glycobiology to students.