October 2019 - our fancy mass-specs are here!
In the Kanarek lab we study metabolic adaptability of cells.
We focus on immune and cancer cells, and we study their metabolic adaptability.
For immune cells - in the context of inflammation and cancer.
For cancer cells - primary and secondary tumor sites.
For cells to survive changes in their environment or to be able to thrive in a completely new location, they must sense the change and immediately respond to it.
The cells must channel their resources wisely, so the most critical cellular functions are fed first.
For different cells these functions vary, and the mechanisms the cells deploy to quickly adapt are quite diverse.
We apply genetic perturbations, biochemical assays, molecular biology, functional genomic screens, and metabolite profiling by mass spectrometry in cell-culture systems and in vivo to study the adaptation mechanisms of immune and cancer cells to new metabolic enviornment.
