Matt Tyska

Matt Tyska joined the cell and developmental biology department at Vanderbilt University as an assistant professor in 2004. He is currently the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and the scientific director of the Vanderbilt Cell Imaging Shared Resource.

He earned his PhD in molecular physiology and biophysics at the University of Vermont and did postdoctoral training with Mark Mooseker at Yale University.

Tyska’s research focuses on understanding how the cytoskeleton controls cell shape and function, specifically in the context of transporting the epithelial cells that line the intestinal tract. Over the past 20 years, his laboratory has made a number of fundamental and field-leading discoveries about the assembly and function of the enterocyte brush border, the apical specialization responsible for intestinal nutrient uptake. Although light and electron microscopy serve as the lab’s principal discovery tools, its investigations are broad in scope, ranging from studying mouse model systems to imaging single molecules in live cells. Importantly, because of the critical physiological role of the brush border, the Tyska laboratory’s basic science findings hold direct relevance for understanding human intestinal disease.