Merced Malabanan, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine within the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). She manages operational activities and oversees collaboration across basic science, translational and clinical arms of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Research Group.
As a scientist, Dr. Malabanan's interest is focused on understanding the mechanisms of complex chemical transformations underlying biological processes that occur in the living cell. Her long-term research goal is to apply foundational biochemical understanding to investigate pathological mechanisms of disease initiation and progression, and in the development of therapeutics.
Dr. Malabanan obtained her undergraduate degrees in Food Technology and Chemistry from the University of the Philippines (Diliman). She continued her studies at State University of New York in Buffalo where she earned her PhD in Medicinal Chemistry. Under the mentorship of Drs. John Richard and Richard Armstrong, her studies involved investigating mechanisms of enzyme-catalyzed reactions and how they affect complex biological processes. She then joined the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at VUMC where she expanded her research into elucidating mechanisms of regulation of nuclear receptors, assay development and high-throughput screening for drug discovery.