Everardo Macias, PhD, has been promoted to associate professor, effective Dec, 1st, 2024.
Macias earned a PhD in comparative biomedical sciences from North Carolina State University. From 2013-2015, he served as a project scientist in the Department of Surgery at Duke. After a stint as an assistant professor at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles in 2015, he rejoined Duke in 2018 as a cancer researcher.
His research involves using human cancer genetics and advanced gene testing to tackle one of prostate cancer’s trickiest players: cancer cells that dodge usual treatments. In lab studies, his method of targeting a protein called NUAK2 successfully slowed down the lethal spread of these cells.
“We are happy to celebrate the promotion of Dr. Everardo Macias to the rank of associate professor,” said Professor of Pathology Herman Staats, PhD. “Everardo is an accomplished prostate cancer researcher and a member of the Duke Cancer Institute. Everardo is also an active member in Pathology’s Graduate Program in Pathobiology and Translational Biosciences and Duke’s Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP). We are fortunate to have Dr. Macias in Pathology at Duke.”
In 2022, Macias earned a Department of Defense (DOD) Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) Idea Development Award to pursue new treatments for neuroendocrine tumors. The DOD recently committed to funding Macias’ research for three more years.
He’s principal investigator of the DOD grant that includes Jiaoti Huang, MD, PhD, professor and chair of the Duke Department of Pathology and member of the Duke Cancer Institute, who collaborates with Macias. Co-investigators include Ming Chen, PhD, associate professor in pathology; and Jung Wook Park, PhD, assistant professor of pathology.
Macias values education, and is one of nearly 40 Duke faculty mentors in the Duke Preparing Research Scholars in Biomedical Sciences Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PRIME-PREP). He is also faculty administrator of Duke’s Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP). He has a deep commitment to mentoring aspiring researchers, especially from rural and underrepresented backgrounds, and is actively involved in graduate admissions, summer research programs, and lab mentoring.
“Dr. Macias provides enthusiastic support to our trainees and opens collaboration schemes with other investigators to broaden the research capacity in the department,” said Duke Hematopathology Division Director Ken H. Young, MD. “His promotion is an excellent demonstration of adequate achievement and success in his junior career.”
Read about his journey to Duke in the article “From Migrant Farm Worker to Duke Scientist, Everardo Macias Tackles Prostate Cancer.”