What Tumors Eat: Understanding Changing Metabolism in Cancer - The Wet Lab Citizen Science Lecture Series

When we consume food, cells have a decision to make: should most of this delicious fuel go towards powering chemical reactions happening in cells, or should some be devoted to making the building materials to help cells grow and divide? We will take a look at the creative ways cancer evolves to rewire cellular metabolism, and how we can turn this superpower into an Achilles’ heel.

Presented by Christal Sohl, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at San Diego State University

Dr. Christal Sohl first fell in love with scientific research as an undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma, where she synthesized chemical models of pollution-damaged heme under Prof. George Richter-Addo. She then obtained her PhD in Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University where she used mechanistic enzymology tools to unravel the catalytic features of human P450s under Prof. Fred Guengerich. Dr. Sohl did a NIH F32 and NIH K99-funded postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pharmacology at Yale University where she explored mechanisms of toxicity and resistance of selective therapies against HIV and cancer with Prof. Karen Anderson. In 2015, she joined the faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at San Diego State University, where she is currently an Assistant Professor leading an American Cancer Society and NIH funded lab interested in unraveling the molecular mechanisms of disease. Prof. Sohl leads a bright and diverse team of “Sohlmates” that strive to understand and combat cancer by probing mechanistic questions at the intersection of biochemistry, molecular biophysics, cell biology, and oncology. By understanding the molecular mechanisms of enzyme dysfunction, we can illuminate structure-function relationships, probe global cellular consequences of mutations, identify new drug targets, and develop platforms for targeted therapy.