Damon Runyon Researchers

Meet Our Scientists
Dennis J. Hsu, MD

DNA stores the information for making all the proteins in an organism. Transfer RNA (tRNA) plays a key role in building the proteins from this blueprint. tRNA molecules recognize specific sequences (three-letter codons) and deliver the corresponding amino acids needed to make a protein. Dr. Hsu recently found that certain starvation conditions can cause some tRNAs to be modulated in colorectal cancer cells. He will study the changes in tRNA levels that occur in response to cellular starvation states. He aims to shed light on how cancer cells adapt to starvation, which potentially can lead to new therapeutic approaches to target metabolic dependencies in cancer.

Project title: "Metabolic determinants of codon usage bias in colorectal cancer"
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Award Program: Physician-Scientist
Sponsor(s) / Mentor(s): Jeremy N. Rich, MD
Cancer Type: Colorectal, All Cancers
Research Area: Cancer Genetics