Wyatt's paper is out in JCB!

CD47 is a 'Dont Eat Me' signal that stops phagocytosis... but how? We've known for a while that CD47 is recognized by SIRPA, and SIRPA recruits a phosphatase but the targets of this phosphotase were not clear. Wyatt showed that CD47 actually only stops one form of phagocytosis, Rac-driven reaching phagocytosis, and does not prevent Rho-driven sinking phagocytosis. He then showed that this is because SIRPA-bound phosphatases dephoshorylate the Rac GEF Vav. Reactivating Vav allowed macrophages to eat targets even if they had CD47!

Congratulations Wyatt!