Leveraging a New Translational Metabolomics Resource to Identify Cancer Pathways and Signatures

Project Description Narrative:

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Wisconsin. More than 36,000 Wisconsinites will be newly diagnosed with cancer and 11,700 will die from it this year.

This project will provide the expertise and infrastructure necessary for Medical College of Wisconsin investigators to lead metabolomics research, fostering the discovery and translation of new strategies for diagnosis and therapy. The researchers hypothesize that new metabolism-based diagnostic tests and imaging methods will improve the timeliness and accuracy of cancer diagnosis, identify critical differences in cancers among various underrepresented groups, and enable the assignment of patients to narrowly defined cohorts, or treatment groups, for precision oncology. Researchers further hypothesize that metabolism-targeting therapies will provide increased efficacy and decreased side effects for aggressive cancer types that are currently difficult to treat, including liquid cancers, such as acute myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma, and solid cancers, such as prostate, liver, lung, and pancreas cancer.