SC14: Cancer Metabolism: Pathways, Targets and Clinical Updates
Wednesday, September 21 | 7:00 - 9:30 pm
Instructors:
Raju Pusapati, Ph.D., Scientist, Ribon Therapeutics; formerly Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Discovery Oncology, Genentech
Vipin Suri, Ph.D., Head of Biology, Raze Therapeutic
Cancer cells, to fuel their growth, rely on what for normal cells is the ‘side’ metabolic pathway. Therefore inhibiting the metabolic enzymes that are ‘activated’ in the cancer cells offers a more precise and targeted therapeutic approach for cancer. This strategy has started to gain traction in the drug discovery industry over the past few years with the first ‘cancer metabolic’ inhibitors recently progressing into clinical trials. In this course we will review the complex metabolic pathways that are exploited by cancer cells and provide an update of the status of the cancer metabolic inhibitors in development.
Course Outline:
Basics of Cancer Metabolism (Raju Pusapati)
- Warburg Effect and Central Carbon Metabolism
- Therapeutic Targeting of Cancer Metabolic Pathways
One-carbon Metabolic Pathways (Vipin Suri)
- Significance for cancer
- How drug targets are identified
- Next steps/target prosecution
Case Study- Opportunities and Challenges in the Therapeutic Targeting of Glycolysis in Cancer (Raju Pusapati)
Current Status of the Field/Updates of Clinical Progress (Raju Pusapati)
Q&A (also throughout course)
Instructor Bios:
, Ph.D., Scientist, Ribon Therapeutics; formerly Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Discovery Oncology, Genentech
Raju Pusapati recently joined Ribon Therapeutics where is he focused on discovering novel PARPs as cancer therapeutic candidates. Until 2016, Dr. Pusapati worked in the area of cancer metabolism as a post-doctoral research fellow in Discovery Oncology at Genentech in the laboratory of Jeff Settleman (and briefly at MGH Cancer Center/Harvard medical School before Dr. Settleman moved to Genentech). During his post-doc, he discovered mTOR-dependent metabolic reprogramming as the mechanism underlying resistance of cancer cells to glycolytic inhibitors. This discovery enabled successful targeting of tumors in mice using a novel combination of drugs. Dr.Pusapati earned his PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from The University of Texas/MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Vipin Suri, Ph.D., Head of Biology, Raze Therapeutic
Vipin Suri, PhD, brings 14 years of experience in biology, pharmacology and biomarker development to Raze. Prior to joining Raze at its inception in July 2013, Dr. Suri was Director and Head of Pharmacology at Sirtris, a division of GlaxoSmithKline leading pharmacology and biomarker development for modulators of protein deacetylases in a number of disease areas including metabolism, inflammation and neurodegeneration. Dr. Suri started his career at Wyeth (now Pfizer), where he focused on novel small molecule, peptide, nucleic acid, and protein therapeutics for obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and other metabolic disorders and led a number of teams through preclinical development. Dr. Suri obtained his PhD in Biochemistry at Brandeis University and his MBA at Yale School of Management. Dr. Suri is the author or coauthor/inventor of 49 publications, presentations and patents.