How does nutrition impact gene regulation? How does cellular metabolism impact cancer? Kathryn E. Wellen, an associate professor of cancer biology and principal investigator of the Wellen Lab, seeks to answer these questions to provide insight into the connection between metabolism—the chemical reactions that change food into energy—and cancer biology.

As a predoctoral student at Harvard, Wellen's research originally focused on fat tissue biology. She soon shifted her focus to cancer cell metabolism after learning more about how genes regulate metabolism in cancer cells.

“With a background in metabolic disease, I was intrigued by the idea that metabolism was also altered in cancer cells,” Wellen says. “I wanted to understand how these changes supported tumor growth and might be targeted therapeutically.”

The Wellen Lab is broadly interested in metabolic signaling and metabolic adaptive mechanisms in cancer and physiology. “We know that metabolic processes take place within the cell,” Wellen explains. “Being able to study where exactly these processes happen within the cell is an important component to understanding many aspects of metabolism. Typically, a whole tissue sample or cell culture plate is used to measure metabolites—the intermediate or end product of metabolism. Metabolism occurs in a way that is very compartmentalized, however, so whole cell samples may not reflect the abundance of metabolite in the specific location you are interested in. With that in mind, we are applying new methods to study subcellular metabolite pools to uncover new insights into how metabolism talks to chromatin. We have also become very interested in the impact of the body’s systemic metabolism on metabolism in cancer cells. In other words, how factors such as diet or systemic nutrient utilization impact tumor growth.”

Wellen says the appeal of studying the diet-cancer link is the ability to pursue questions she generally is interested in, like cellular and molecular mechanisms of nutrient handling, combined with the potential to impact human health. “I’m really excited about the potential for understanding at the mechanistic level how organismal metabolism impacts cancer metabolism. The possibility of being able to combine dietary interventions with other therapeutics to maximize effectiveness or reduce toxicity is very appealing”

--Nicole Fullerton