Metabolism and Cell Signaling

Our team investigates how cellular metabolic and bioenergetic fluxes interact with signaling processes to coordinate the growth and normal functioning of cells and tissues. We study these interaction mechanisms at the molecular and cellular level, and how they are deregulated during cancer. In recent years the group has established the interaction processes between the metabolism of the amino acid glutamine, the most abundant in human blood and the most important from an energy point of view for cells, with cellular signaling through the mTOR pathway, an essential protein complex in the regulation of cell growth and metabolism. Our investigations have shown how glutamine and mTOR interact in an altered way in tumor cells through a mechanism that we have termed "glutamoptosis", and propose new therapeutic approaches to specifically attack tumor cells in cell and animal models.