Cancer cells use specific metabolic pathways to fuel their growth into tumors.  A great deal of work has already defined some of these pathways that allow cancer cells to grow in the laboratory, but very little is known about which pathways drive the growth of actual tumors in cancer patients. 

Dr. DeBerardinis aims to understand the role of metabolism in tumor growth and to use these findings to improve treatment of cancer.  He plans to use novel, highly sensitive methods to study metabolic activity in vivo in primary human glioma brain tumors, and to image these activities in growing tumors.  This approach should also be applicable to other cancer types and will be important for disease imaging and therapy.

 

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Project Title: "Translational studies in cancer metabolism"

Institution: UT Southwestern Medical Center

Sponsor(s) / Mentor(s): Helen H. Hobbs, MD

Cancer Type: All cancers

Research Area: Cell Biology