Sensing the tumor microenvironment

Lumibao, Jan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/103740 Copy

Description

Title

Sensing the tumor microenvironment

Author(s)

Lumibao, Jan

Issue Date

2019

Keyword(s)

Nutritional Sciences

Abstract

Cancer cells often face hostile surroundings, and solid tumor microenvironments frequently impose stressors such as nutrient deprivation and decreasing oxygen levels that force rapid adaptation of malignant cells in order to survive. Hypoxia, i.e. physiologically low levels of oxygen, is a common feature of solid tumors, including glioblastoma, the most common and malignant form of primary brain tumor in adults. Understanding the ways glioblastoma cells sense, respond, and adapt to environmental stressors like hypoxia is a promising research avenue for understanding the cellular events that promote tumor cell adaptation, growth and migration, and therapeutic resistance. My research focuses on how mitochondria (red), the “powerhouse†of the cell, sense metabolic stress and relay this signal back to the nucleus (blue), which houses the cell’s DNA, to promote changes in gene expression and cell behavior. Specifically, I am interested in the function and dynamics of the protein CHCHD2 (green), which translocates from mitochondria to the nucleus in glioblastoma cells exposed to hypoxia (merged panel). Understanding how glioblastoma cells sense, respond, and adapt to metabolic pressures imposed by the tumor microenvironment may inspire therapeutic strategies aimed at undermining this ability to improve tumor management.

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/103740

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Copyright 2019 Jan Lumibao

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