Roles
- Associate Professor of Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology
- Assistant Director for Education and Training, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Member, Tumor Biology Program, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Pap Corps Champions for Cancer Research Endowed Chair
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Biography
Dr. Isom was born and raised in the Cleveland area. A first-generation college graduate and academic, he spent two years at the Cleveland Institute of Art before earning degrees in biochemistry and chemistry from Case Western Reserve University. He earned his PhD in molecular biophysics from Johns Hopkins University and completed postdoctoral training at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2016, he joined the Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Dr. Isom’s laboratory studies how cells sense their environment, cooperate, and adapt by combining computation, super-resolution imaging, structural biology, and synthetic biology. The work spans pH sensing by G protein-coupled receptors, the dark proteome, and the intercellular exchange of organelles and information. In 2026, the laboratory reported the discovery of TM184C in Nature, a “superdark” protein whose amino acid sequence offered no clues to its function. By comparing predicted protein structures rather than sequences, the laboratory found that TM184C resembles a GPCR and helps cells communicate by forming intercellular connections through which they exchange vesicles, mitochondria, and other cellular material. More about the laboratory’s work is at isomlab.com. -
Education & Training
Education
Post Graduate Training
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Honors & Awards
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Teaching Interests
Dr. Isom teaches extensively and is a leading advocate of coding literacy. Since 2016, he has led efforts to establish a culture of coding at the UM School of Medicine. He founded MCP 743, Introduction to Python Programming for Bioscientists, and directed its successor, MCP 743 / PIBS 706, Informatics for Biosciences, which has given coding skills to more than 100 graduate students. These courses have inspired the expansion of new classes at the interface of coding and the biomedical sciences. Dr. Isom developed and leads the core Pharmacology Unit of UM’s NextGenMD medical curriculum. In addition to these efforts, Dr. Isom teaches extensively in the Pharmacology and Cancer Biology graduate programs, serves on many graduate student dissertation committees (both at UM, nationally, and internationally), and serves as an unofficial mentor for many graduate students that are working to integrate computational approaches into their dissertation projects. Since 2024 he has served as Assistant Director for Education and Training at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.?? -
Research Interests
Given Dr. Isom's extensive training and broad expertise, he has a wide range of research interests and capabilities that span the fields of pharmacology, synthetic and computational biology, genetic engineering, molecular biophysics, and more. He has established an ambitious research program aimed at illuminating the molecular and cellular basis of proton sensing, creating new technologies for nanobody and drug discovery, and developing novel algorithms for data science in areas related to genomics, proteomics, and cellular imaging. Dr. Isom's research leverages his lab's ability to translate high-throughput CRISPR experiments on human genes in yeast to human cell models. This has led to advances such as new drug and nanobody discovery platforms for G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), the illumination of GPCR proton-sensing mechanisms, the discovery of proton-gated GPCR agonism, technologies for building fully functional GPCR biosensor chimeras, and pan-viral surveillance technologies.
More recently the lab has focused on the dark proteome, the proteins whose sequences have diverged too far for comparison to reveal what they do. By comparing predicted structures instead, the lab identified TM184C, a GPCR-like regulator of intercellular exchange and autophagy, reported in Nature in 2026. Dr. Isom calls proteins of this class superdark.?? -
Publications
Disclaimer: Information presented in this section has been consolidated using AI and machine learning technologies. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, errors may occur. If you identify any inaccuracies, use this link to inform our data team. Your feedback is appreciated and helps us improve the quality of our content.Professional Activities
Articles & News
Found in the Dark: How AI Helped Reveal a Hidden Cellular Communication Network
Dr. Daniel Isom Honored with The Pap Corps Champions for Cancer Research Endowed Chair
A Vanguard in Science and Education
Disclaimer:
Information presented in this section has been consolidated using AI and machine learning technologies. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, errors may occur. If you identify any inaccuracies, use this link to inform our data team. Your feedback is appreciated and helps us improve the quality of our content.