PI: Katharina Leithner
Focus: Our aim is to understand the role of cellular metabolism in the interplay of tumor cells and immune cells and to identify metabolic vulnerabilities of cancer cells. We are focused on lung cancer, a tumor with an often dismal prognosis despite novel treatment options. Metabolic pathways that are activated in tumor cells and certain immune cells (macrophages) under low nutrient conditions, especially gluconeogenesis, are of particular interest for the group, since these conditions may prevail in certain parts of lung cancer. We investigate these pathways in our international team using heavy precursors, such as 13C-glucose or 13C-glutamine and address their function using genetic silencing approaches (CRISPR-Cas9). With our research we aim to contribute to identifying potential novel targets for lung cancer treatment.
Collaborations: In longstanding collaborations with the Division of Thoracic Surgery, the Division of Pulmonology, the Diagnostic and Research Institute of Pathology and the Biobank we investigate the relevance of our findings for human lung cancer. To this end, we utilize fresh and archival lung and lung cancer specimens obtained from surgery. Further, we successfully collaborate with the Core Facility Mass Spectrometry at the Center for Medical Research (ZMF), the Division of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, the Division of Medical Chemistry, the Division of Immunology and the Division of Oncology as well as with experienced labs worldwide, e.g. the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology (Leuven, Belgium), the Idibell (Barcelona, Spain), and the University of Chicago (USA).
