Event
ChBE Seminar Series: Mark P. Styczynski
Friday, December 13, 2013
10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
Room 2108, Chemical and Nuclear Enginering Bldg.
Professor Jeffery Klauda
jbklauda@umd.edu
Metabolomics: A Systems Approach to Problems in Engineering and Biology
Mark P. Styczynski
Assistant Professor
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Understanding and controlling cellular metabolism (the process by which nutrients taken into a cell are turned into energy and the building blocks for more cells) is crucial to numerous applications, from enabling more efficient bioenergy production to unraveling the mechanisms of diseases like cancer. However, true understanding of (and control over) metabolism is hindered by a dearth of information available about the dynamics of metabolism and the molecular mechanisms that regulate those dynamics. A deeper understanding in these areas would enable much more efficient manipulation of existing metabolic networks to circumvent or exploit native metabolic regulation. In this seminar, we will provide an overview of our work in the field as we begin to unravel metabolic dynamics and regulation. We will also provide a more in-depth look at some of our more recent metabolomics results. Using mass spectrometry, we have investigated the metabolic dynamics of cancer cells in response to environmental perturbations that we expect tumors to encounter in vivo, and have identified unique metabolic properties of cancer-initiating cells that may help to guide design of new therapeutic interventions. We will also discuss some of our collaborations with marine biologists to identify predictors of aquatic animal health for a variety of applications.
