BRAIN & BODY SEMINAR SERIES 2022 – Gary Patti

 On Wednesday, 19th November 2022, the Brain & Body Seminar Series for the year 2022 was kicked off by Professor Gary Patti from Washington University in St. Louis. He presented an engaging talk on “Understanding the Cell-Intrinsic and Cell-Extrinsic Drivers of Oncogenesis”. As he was talking to an audience with a mixed background, he began with a discussion on the challenges of metabolomics, followed by a description of how such a powerful technology can be used to dissect both cellular cancer mechanisms such as the Warburg effect, as well as global effects such as the metabolic consequences of tumours on whole-body physiology (including but not limited to the brain!). Prof. Patti also illustrated how the zebrafish model can be leveraged to understand tumour-liver metabolic cross-talk, which involves an interplay between amino acid and glucose metabolism. The Q&A session was also extremely lively, taking up over 20 minutes, and spanning a wide range of topics, from discussions on the mechanisms of metabolic flux regulation to potential therapeutic strategies. function.