"Uncovering Metabolic Regulation and Dynamics"

Mark Styczynski, PhD - Assistant Professor, School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Abstract:

Understanding and controlling cellular metabolism (the process by which nutrients taken into a cell are turned into energy and the building blocks for more cells) is crucial to numerous applications, from enabling more efficient bioenergy production to unraveling the mechanisms of diseases like cancer. However, true understanding of (and control over) metabolism is hindered by a dearth of information available about the dynamics of metabolism and the molecular mechanisms that regulate those dynamics. A deeper understanding in these areas would enable much more efficient manipulation of existing metabolic networks to circumvent or exploit native metabolic regulation. In this seminar, we will discuss our work as we begin to unravel metabolic dynamics and regulation in two different (yet related) systems: yeast and cancer. Using mass spectrometry, we investigate the metabolic dynamics of cancer cells in response to environmental perturbations that we expect tumors to encounter in vivo. We also use complementary high-throughput analytical techniques to begin to enumerate the space of metabolite-protein interactions in the metabolic network of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The IBB Breakfast Club seminar series was started with the spirit of the Institute's interdisciplinary mission in mind and started to feature local IBB faculty member's research in a seminar format. Faculty are often asked to speak at other universities and conferences, but rarely present at their home institution, this seminar series is an attempt to close that gap. The IBB Breakfast Club is open to anyone in the bio-community.