Graduate Student
Address: 3316 PBDB
Phone: (319) 335-7500
Email: jane-buchanan@uiowa.edu
Program: MSTP, Molecular Medicine
Mentor: Eric Taylor, PhD

Research Descritpion: 

In order to sustain rapid proliferation, cancer cells undergo metabolic reprogramming to increase protein, nucleotide, and lipid synthesis. My project focuses on how downregulation or deletion of the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) could be a type of metabolic reprogramming to sustain cancer cell growth. The MPC is a protein that transports pyruvate from the cytoplasm into the mitochondria, linking glycolysis and the TCA cycle. Disruption of the MPC is correlated with metastasis and poor survival in certain cancers. Specifically, I am interested in whether MPC disruption drives cancer cell proliferation by availing ammonia for non-essential amino acid synthesis.