Dr. Mark Tang, Assistant Professor of Biology at Michigan Technological University, will present a talk about his research, entitled “Starving Cancer Cells to Death: Can Cysteine Depletion Combat Cancer?.” Learn more about Dr. Tang’s research here.

Metabolic deregulation is an emerging hallmark in a variety of cancers. Such metabolic reprogramming alters cellular metabolites that subsequently promote profound effects on gene expression, cellular differentiation, and tumor progression. Metabolic vulnerabilities in tumors present as potential targets for precision-targeted therapy, which eliminate tumor cells, but do not damage normal cells. Some associations between metabolism and gene signature can be revealed by tumor omics data. However, because of the complexity of human metabolism, cancer metabolic vulnerability cannot be precisely determined by omics information. Dr. Tang exploited the nutrient-genetic screening approach and identified the cysteine-addictive phenotype in many types of cancer. Such cysteine-addiction is found to be greatly associated with mesenchymal cancer, which can be quickly eliminated by cysteine deprivation via ferroptosis. Several epigenetic compounds were further identified that potentially make the targeted cysteine therapy more widely applicable to non-mesenchymal cancer. Recently, Dr. Tang revealed that sustained cysteine deprivation can overcome drug resistance caused by intratumoral heterogeneity and prevent tumorigenesis at the root. Overall, the findings suggest that targeted cysteine therapy could be a promising strategy to treat a variety of cancers.

The presentation will begin at 4:00 PM via Microsoft Teams, preceded by an informal Q&A from 3:45 – 4:00 PM. Click here to join via Teams.