Ira Mellman is Vice President of Research Oncology at Genentech. Ira is a cell biologist with a long standing interest in membrane traffic. His lab is reponsible for key observations leading to the initial discovery of endosomes, the mechanisms of epithelial cell polarity, and the cellular basis of dendritic cell function. Until 2007, Ira was Chair of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale University School of Medicine where he also served as Sterling Professor of Cell Biology and Immunobiology and part of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.
Ira is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Fellow of Lincoln College (Oxford), and the recipient of numerous named lectureships and awards. He was also Editor in Chief of the Journal of Cell Biology for many years. Ira received his AB from Oberlin College, his PhD from Yale in Genetics, and performed postdoctoral work at Rockefeller (with Zanvil Cohn and Ralph Steinman).
