Seahorse Bioscience, Inc., the leader in instruments for assessing cellular bioenergetics, recently organized a symposium on Cancer and Mitochondrial Function featuring Douglas Green, Ph.D., from St. Jude Children's Hospital; Navdeep S. Chandel, Ph.D., from Northwestern Medical School; and Nicholas C. Denko, Ph.D., from Stanford University School of Medicine. The symposium was held June 9th at the Natcher Conference Center in Bethesda, at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus.
One of a series, this symposium explored how new understanding of mitochondrial function and cellular bioenergetics is rapidly transforming the field of cancer research. Nearly 100 scientists from the greater Bethesda area gathered to hear about current research in apoptosis, tumor bioenergetics, and metabolic therapeutic targets from the three speakers. The sessions were "The Mitochondrial Pathway of Apoptosis: MOMP and Beyond" presented by Doug Green; "Mitochondria & Cancer" presented by Navdeep Chandel; and "Treatment of Cancer by Metabolic Reprogramming" presented by Nicholas Denko.
"We are showing that regulating cellular bioenergetics is a key strategy for abnormal cells to survive apoptosis and become cancerous," observed Douglas Green, Chair of Immunology at St. Jude's. "Cancer cells avoid apoptosis by increasing their energy level and repairing the damage. This is revealing new strategies for our ultimate goal of finding better treatments."
Describing his pending clinical trial that will target cancer by reprogramming its bioenergetics, Nicholas Denko of Stanford University School of Medical explained, "We have been able to leverage our basic understanding of how tumor hypoxia can regulate mitochondrial function. This lead to the successful testing of a small molecule inhibitor of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase in animal tumors, and we now have approval to begin a clinical trial in patients with solid tumors."
"The positive response to this symposium parallels the cancer research market's increasing interest in understanding cancer bioenergetics," observed David Ferrick, CSO for Seahorse. "At our recent User's Meeting the majority of the guest speakers chose to share their bioenergetics research on cancer. With modern tools to measure bioenergetics in cells, such as the Seahorse XF Analyzer, scientists are making discoveries that we expect will result in new therapies for treating cancer as well as other diseases."
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