Julia Brunner, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Website Julia Brunner
Programm
"Shuffling electron shuttles during cell state transitions"
Mammalian cell survival and proliferation requires energy, reducing equivalents, and biosynthetic precursors to maintain basic cellular processes. To meet these demands, cells take up and catabolize nutrients via an intricate network of metabolic pathways. Despite requiring a fixed set of metabolic intermediates in order to maintain homeostasis and increase biomass, mammalian cells exhibit notable metabolic flexibility and heterogeneity. Recent research is beginning to uncover the breadth of metabolic strategies employed by both normal and malignant cells. How these cell type specific metabolic profiles are established, and how such metabolic choices affect cell fate decisions, are major open questions. Here, I will show recent work identifying that cellular programs such as differentiation are accompanied by differential engagement of electron shuttles and that electron shuttles are required to support TCA cycle substrate switching between major carbon sources. As tumors consist of a spectrum of cancer cell states, the targeting of these central metabolic networks provides a unique opportunity to directly influence cancer cell fate and cancer outcomes. In summary, I will discuss our latest work on how metabolic networks need to re-configure to support cell fate transitions.
Host: Gernot SCHABBAUER
Contact for questions: Helmut KUBISTA