Haopeng Xiao, PhD

Metabolism is how cells use nutrients to make energy and build the molecules they need to live. Cancer cells, unlike healthy cells, can change these processes. This rewiring helps them grow faster, resist stress, and avoid death. Learning how this happens may lead to new treatments.Our lab uses data-driven tools to study cancer metabolism. One of our main methods is mass spectrometry. This tool measures thousands of proteins and metabolites, and these molecules are the building blocks of metabolism. By measuring them in cancer, we can create a clear picture of how cancer cells use their metabolism to their advantage. These large datasets also allow us to use machine learning to find hidden patterns and weak points that cancer depends on.With this approach, we found a protein that controls the levels of cysteine, an amino acid that cancer cells need to grow and survive. The protein works by sensing and adjusting cysteine levels in cells. We are now testing if it can be a new drug target to kill cancer cells. In the future, we will use similar methods to find more hidden rules that let tumors survive. Our goal is to turn these findings into better cancer treatments that directly target cancer’s unique metabolic needs.