Systems biology of metabolic reprogramming during cancer metastasis
Faculty: Mohit Kumar Jolly (BSSE), Annapoorni Rangarajan (MRDG)
Cancer metastasis remains the major cause of cancer-related deaths, and the ability of cells to switch their phenotypes reversibly – cellular plasticity – is considered as a hallmark of metastasis. An important axis of plasticity is metabolic reprogramming – where cells can switch reversibly among various cell-states: glycolysis, oxidative phosphorylation, a hybrid state featuring both metabolic modes, and a quiescent/dormant state. This project focuses on understanding the molecular attributes of these distinct phenotypes and what factors (e.g., matrix detachment, hypoxia etc.) can trigger cell-state transitions, thus driving metabolic reprogramming. We shall employ an interdisciplinary approach integrating dynamical modeling of metabolic regulatory networks, high- throughput data analysis and new in vitro experiments to quantify the rates of transition among these cell-states.
Previous work from our groups on this theme:
- Saha et al. Cancer Res 2018 – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29339542/
- Chedere et al. J Clin Med 2021 – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33530625/
- Muralidharan et al. Biomolecules 2022 – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35204797/