Ian Tamayo
M.D./Ph.D. Student
About Me
Hey! My name is Ian Tamayo. I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. I’m married with 4 pets (2 dogs and 2 cats, yes they get along… most of the time). Both of my parents are physicians which led me to medicine early on, and I was fascinated by all science as a child. One of my first career ideas was to be a pathologist solely because they got to use a microscope. The other was to be an archaeologist which didn’t pan out. I graduated from UTSA with a Bachelor’s in Microbiology and Immunology (2021) and a Master’s in Cell and Molecular Biology (2023). Diabetes and autoimmune disease affects multiple members of my family which was part of my early motivation to enter research. My master’s research in Dr. Astrid Cardona’s lab at UTSA focused on the neuroinflammation caused by diabetes in the eye and brain. After graduation, I performed research at UTHSA under Dr. Kumar Sharma to study the metabolic dysfunction in heart and kidney of patients with diabetes using mass spec imaging. I am excited to continue my journey in medicine and research at UT Health San Antonio and develop as a physician-scientist.
Hobbies/Interests
Some of my hobbies: Spending time with my wife and pets, sand volleyball, playing the french horn, learning piano, reading/watching Sci-Fi, and playing video games when time allows.
Research Topic
Immunology, Cancer
Why I chose MD/PhD
I believe the answer to health problems can only come from the junction of research and medicine. Research is the most meaningful if the findings can impact lives, and clinical practice is only effective by having evidence-based treatments. The MD/PhD path lets me explore the entire process and will make me both a better scientist and physician.
Why I chose MD/PhD at UT Health San Antonio
My hometown is San Antonio with both me and my wife’s family from here, so I have plenty of support and reasons to stay near the city. Beyond that, the MSTP program at UT Health San Antonio was one of the most supportive and welcoming administrations that I interviewed with and really made me feel at home in the program. There are strong research and clinical faculty / centers in the San Antonio medical center that are reasons to stay here for the MD/PhD.
Post-bac work or other affiliations
Research Associate at UT Health San Antonio
Education
B.S., Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas at San Antonio, 2021
M.S., Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at San Antonio, 2023
Publications
1. Tamayo, I., Lee, H. J., Aslam, M. I., Liu, J.-J., Ragi, N., Karanam, V., Maity, S., Saliba, A., Treviño, E., Zheng, H., Lim, S. C., Lanzer, J. D., Bjornstad, P., Tuttle, K., Bedi, K. C. Jr., Margulies, K. B., Ramachandran, V., Abdel‑Latif, A., Saez‑Rodriguez, J., Iyengar, R., Bopassa, J. C., & Sharma, K. (2024, August 20). Endogenous adenine is a potential driver of the cardiovascular‑kidney‑metabolic syndrome [Preprint]. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.19.24312277
2. Church, K. A., Rodriguez, D., Mendiola, A. S., Vanegas, D., Gutiérrez, I. L., Tamayo, I., Amadu, A., Velázquez, P., Cardona, S. M., Gyoneva, S., Cotleur, A. C., Ransohoff, R. M., Kaur, T., & Cardona, A. E. (2023). Pharmacological depletion of microglia alleviates neuronal and vascular damage in the diabetic CX3CR1‐WT retina but not in CX3CR1‐KO or hCX3CR1 I249/M280‐expressing retina. Frontiers in Immunology, 14, Article 1130735. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1130735
3. Lee, H. J., Min, L., Gao, J., Matta, S., Drel, V., Saliba, A., Tamayo, I., Montellano, R., Hejazi, L., Maity, S., Xu, G., Grajeda, B. I., Roy, S., Hallows, K. R., Choudhury, G. G., Kasinath, B. S., & Sharma, K. (2024). Female protection against diabetic kidney disease is regulated by kidney‑specific AMPK activity. Diabetes, 73(7), 1167–1177. https://doi.org/10.2337/db23‑0807
4. Saliba, A., Debnath, S., Tamayo, I., Tumova, J., Maddox, M., Singh, P., Fastenau, C., Maity, S., Lee, H. J., Zhang, G., Hejazi, L., O’Connor, J. D., Fongang, B., Hopp, S. C., Bieniek, K. F., Lechleiter, J. D., & Sharma, K. (2025, February 13). Quinolinic acid potentially links kidney injury to brain toxicity. JCI Insight, 10(6), e180229. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.180229
5. Choi, Y. J., Richard, G., Zhang, G., Hodgin, J. B., Demeke, D. S., Yang, Y., Schaub, J. A., Tamayo, I. M., et al. (2024, December 16). Attenuated kidney oxidative metabolism in young adults with type 1 diabetes. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 134(24), Article e183984. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI183984
6. Ge, M., Molina, J., Tamayo, I., Zhang, G., Kim, J.‑J., Njeim, R., Fontanesi, F., Pieper, M. P., Merscher, S., Sharma, K., & Fornoni, A. (2024). Metabolic analysis and renal protective effects of linagliptin and empagliflozin in Alport syndrome. Kidney360, 5(7), 1002–1011. https://doi.org/10.34067/KID.0000000000000472