Cancer Metabolism: A Study of Glucose Starvation and Pyruvate Supplementation

Presenter

Leila Imani

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Andrew Stephens, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A76, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 4 (A61-A80) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Cancer is a disease that involves the uncontrolled proliferation of cells causing various harmful effects to bodily functions or even death. In 2020 alone, 19.3 million people were diagnosed with cancer and there were 10 million cancer related deaths globally. The unique metabolism of cancer is an aspect of cancer that is under researched as a potential target as most current therapies focus on killing the cells. The characteristic of metabolism that allows for a method to be developed that slows the growth of cancerous cells while maintaining normal cell metabolism is cancers’ proclivity for glycolysis over oxidative phosphorylation. Glucose (the macromolecule broken down in glycolysis) starvation along with pyruvate supplementation could be utilized to discourage anaerobic respiration and force cancer cells to undergo aerobic respiration—the less efficient method of ATP generation for malignant cells. To test this, cells will be grown in different oxygen/media conditions and growth will be measured to confirm whether cancer cells can metabolize pyruvate. The population affected by cancer is global and crosses the lines of class, race, and sex. The number of people affected by cancers and cancer related deaths are expected to increase due to factors such as increasing life expectancies and higher population growth rates. Due to this, any advance in our understanding of cancer has the potential to help a lot of people.

Keywords

Metabolism, Biomarker identification, Targeted drug delivery

Research Area

Cancer Studies

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