May is National Cancer Research Month, created by Congress in 2007 to recognize the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) for its contributions to the field. To honor AACR and highlight some of the important cancer research being done at Sanford-Burnham, we will be posting a series of articles on the ongoing work in our National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center. The vast majority of this research is made possible by funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which includes the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Fifty years ago, cancer biologists were convinced that understanding cancer metabolism would lead to a cure, until discoveries about cancer genetics shifted the research focus in other directions. But now the pendulum is swinging back, renewing interest in metabolism’s role in cancer.

Dr. Jorge Moscat and Dr. Maria Diaz-Meco, who both recently arrived at Sanford-Burnham from the University of Cincinnati, have been working together for more than twenty years to understand the mechanisms that allow cancer cells to grow at such a breakneck pace. Their investigations have led them to a network of proteins characterized by having PB1 domains. This network of proteins controls inflammation, how cells communicate with each other, and how they sense nutrients—all key drivers of cancer growth.

For example, the PB1-containing scaffold protein p62 regulates an enzyme called protein kinase C zeta (PKCZ), which is often missing in human cancers. PKCZ is a tumor suppressor that prevents inflammation and ensures that cells remain sensitive to nutrient levels. Cells without PKCZ get reprogrammed to endure food scarcity.

“If they lack this gene, they don’t care if glucose is unavailable,” says Dr. Moscat, “they just use other nutrients.”

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