2/21/25: Congratulations Dr. Akingbesote!
Congratulations to the new Dr. Ngozi Akingbesote, who masterfully defended her PhD thesis titled “Innovative Approaches to Combat Breast Cancer: Integrating Metabolic Modulation and Lifestyle Interventions.” Dr. Akingbesote will now be on to a position at Sanofi in Boston!
2/11/25: Kaylee is awarded a Northwestern University Young Leaders Program grant
We were so excited to learn that three slots in the Yale VIBES program will now be supported by an award to Kaylee from the Northwestern Young Leaders Program! This allows us to expand the program and provide paid opportunities to do remote research to three additional undergraduate scholars. Way to go, Kaylee!
1/23/25: Yani and Abigail’s review published
Congratulations to Yani and Abigail, whose co-first author review was just published in Translational Breast Cancer Research. They examined the impact of environmental and lifestyle factors on three cancers relevant to women’s health (breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers) and discussed the similarities and differences between the tumor types. There is much to be learned by cutting across cancer types!
12/19/24: The lab receives a Liver Center pilot award
The lab is delighted to receive a pilot grant from the Yale Liver Center to support our work following up on an observation made while generating mice for Perry et al. Nature 2020 regarding breeding success of mice lacking a gluconeogenesis-promoting enzyme in liver. We are excited to enter the world of reproductive and neonatal physiology with the support of the Liver Center!
11/26/24: Dr. Perry is promoted to Associate Professor!
We just got the news that retroactive to July 1, Dr. Perry has been promoted to Associate Professor of Cellular & Molecular Physiology, Internal Medicine (Endocrinology), and Comparative Medicine, with an affiliation with the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program as well as the Translational Molecular Medicine, Pharmacology, and Physiology Track. This is a shared accomplishment, and Rachel is deeply grateful for the opportunity to lead such a dynamic, smart, hardworking and kind team for the past six and a half years. As you can see, we celebrated for a minute, and now, we’re keeping the science going!
10/31/24: Abigail is a recipient of the Dean’s Emerging Scholars research award!
Abigail has been selected as a recipient of the Dean’s Emerging Scholars Research Award, extending our lab’s streak to three for three with this award! The award recognizes Abigail’s outstanding academic credentials and promise as a PhD student. Great job, Abigail!
10/17-10/18/24: The lab hosts the Yale MMPC-Vibrant program advisors
We had a special event this week: a visit from the external advisors to our MMPC-Vibrant program (for more info, see here), which seeks to extend opportunities to new investigators from historically marginalized backgrounds and from predominantly minority-serving institutions to grow in the mouse metabolic phenotyping community. Our advisors, Drs. Heather Caslin (UT Houston), Rafael Arroyo e Drigo (Vanderbilt), and David Alagpulinsa (Yale) visited us for a dynamic set of tours, advisory meetings, and a talk by Dr. Caslin (right)!
10/17/24: Andin receives the Lawrence E. Armstrong Academic Excellence Award
Congratulations to Andin, who has been recognized by the with the 2024 Lawrence E. Armstrong Academic Excellence Award from the New England Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine. The consummate scholar-athlete (shown at the left is her photo as part of the USA Bobsled team), Andin is wonderfully deserving of this prestigious award!
10/4/24: Yanitza gives the Yale Reproductive Sciences Seminar
Yanitza was invited by Dr. Yang Yang-Hartwich to present at the Yale Reproductive Sciences seminar. She did a fantastic job and made the lab proud!
10/2/24: Rosa joins the lab
The Perry lab is delighted to welcome Rosa Grijalva, a neuroscientist and an NSF fellow, as a PhD student in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience program, earning her PhD in our lab. Rosa is interested in how neurobiological rewiring, potentially in response to metabolic cues, underlies the symptoms of cancer-related fatigue, and how the beneficial effects of dichloroacetate on fatigue may be mediated through neurological changes.
9/28/24: Rachel & Ngozi participate in the last Lion Heart foundation walk
The Perry lab has been fortunate to receive two grants from the Lion Heart Foundation, which is committed to funding translational breast cancer research at Yale. It was a privilege for Ngozi and Rachel to update the Lion Hearts on our progress, and to thank them for their tremendous support of our research. We are forever Lion Hearts!
8/19/24: Welcome (virtually) Katie!
Katie Liu is a high school student who has joined our lab virtually! Katie will be using publicly available data (TCGA, Human Protein Atlas) to explore genes that may link metabolism to prognosis in breast cancer, following the model that several very successful high school students who have previously been part of our lab have established. Welcome Katie!
8/9/24: Welcome Kaylee!
The Perry lab is delighted to welcome Kaylee Zilinger, a recent Northwestern grad and postbac with the prestigious American Cancer Society’s DICR fellowship. She will lead a project focusing on the metabolic dependence of different kidney cancer cell lines, and also participate in projects related to melanoma immunometabolism. The photo on the right shows our group at dinner to welcome Kaylee!
7/16 and 7/18/24: Pathways to Science returns to the Perry lab
Our lab was excited to host two groups of high school students through the Pathways to Science program this week. The students took mice through three exercise tests (swimming, running, and gripping). They made hypotheses as to which groups (fed males, fasted males, or fed females) would perform best in the exercise tests and cheered on their favorite mice! Thank you Andin, Abigail, and Susana for joining Rachel in leading the exercise tests!
7/1/24: Andin receives a Diversity Supplement
Congratulations to Andin, who has received a Diversity Supplement to Rachel’s R37 grant! Andin’s exciting project extends the work on the R37 to understand whether the mechanism tested in the R37 to promote renal cell carcinoma also contributes to cancer cachexia in mice with RCC. This award covers Andin’s support through the rest of her PhD!
3/27/24: CeCe & Rachel’s commentary published
Congratulations to CeCe on her commentary on a translational paper revealing an AI-generated histopathology and spatial proteomics approach to generate a metabolic signature to predict melanoma recurrence in patients. It was published in Clinical and Translational Discovery today!
3/1/24: Gautham & Rachel’s commentary published
Congratulations to Gautham, whose commentary on a paper previously published in Diabetes, has just come out. It’s a tremendous accomplishment to have a published commentary, particularly as a high school student!
2/13/24: Ngozi presents at the Keystone Tumor Metabolism meeting with a travel scholarship
Ngozi gave an oral presentation titled “MultiOmics Analysis of Breast Cancer Response to Exercise and Immunotherapy in Mice” at the Keystone Tumor Metabolism meeting in beautiful, wintry Banff, Alberta, Canada!
1/31/24: Xinyi publishes TWO papers in AJP Endo
Congratulations Dr. Zhang on publishing the first unsolicited review from the Perry lab! This piece examines what is known about the relationships between metabolism and cancer-related fatigue. Spoiler: we still have a lot left to learn!
(Figure from Zhang et al. AJP Endo 2024)
And second but no less important, Xinyi also published an original research paper in which she utilized the thiazolidinedione (TZD) rosiglitazone, a type 2 diabetes drug which repartitions fatty acids, and thus fatty acid metabolism, from the visceral compartment to the subcutaneous space. She found that the TZD improved the response to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in mice with melanoma, opening a new vein for using metabolic therapy to improve the efficacy of first-line cancer immunotherapy.
(Figure from the other Zhang et al. AJP Endo 2024)
1/19/24: Introducing Dr. Zhang!
Congratulations Dr. Xinyi Zhang on a very successful defense of her dissertation! Xinyi is the third Ph.D. graduate from the Perry lab, and presented an excellent defense of her three original research papers and one review to an audience of cancer enthusiasts, colleagues, friends, and family. Xinyi’s next move will be to Boston where she will take a job as a patent specialist at K&L Gates!
1/19/23: Yanitza passes her qualifying exam
Congratulations to Yanitza on passing her qualifying exam with flying colors! Yanitza’s committee were very excited about her project aiming to understand how obesity worsens female reproductive health using both preclinical models and human follicular fluid.
12/14/23: Yanitza receives a Dean’s Emerging Scholars research award!
Congratulations to Yani who has been selected as one of the recipients of the Dean’s Emerging Scholars award, recognizing her academic promise and commitment to making the academic ecosystem more inclusive of all. It’s well deserved recognition!
10/13/23: Gautham’s paper is published in PLoS One
Way to go Gautham, whose paper was published today in PLoS One! The second author is Ryan, who was the first high school student to have a first author paper in the Perry lab. We love working with “generations” of successful high school mentees!
10/1/23: Xinyi’s paper is published in AJP Endo
Congratulations to Xinyi and our co-authors! Xinyi’s paper on a surprising ability of dichloroacetate (an activator of glucose oxidation) to reduce symptoms of cancer related fatigue in mice has just been published in AJP Endo. After publication, the manuscript received several commendations, including being the most shared paper across all APS journals the week of publication, and the paper selected by AJP Endo to highlight for the month!
The figure is the graphical abstract from Zhang et al. AJP Endo 2023.
7/27/23: Ngozi is an HHMI-Gilliam Fellow!
Congratulations to Ngozi who has been named an HHMI-Gilliam Fellow! This award recognizes her potential, her leadership, and the tremendous ways in which she gives back on a regular basis. The award is to mentee-mentor pairs, and Rachel is looking forward to participating in the mentor training offered by the fellowship. We are thrilled to be part of the HHMI-Gilliam community of young scientists and mentors!
7/11/23: Pathways to Science enrichment session in the Perry lab
We had a wonderful time today hosting a group of local high school students for a session on exercise. Students rotated around three stations performing exercise tests on mice. Which group (fed or fasted, male or female) do you think did best??
7/6/23: Brooks’ sepsis paper published
Congratulations to Brooks on the publication of his paper, titled “Tissue-specific reprogramming of glutamine metabolism maintains tolerance to sepsis” in PLOS One! Brooks utilized a multiOmics approach to demonstrate a key role for glutamine and modulation of redox balance in sepsis survival in mice, complemented by transcriptomics data from humans. This work may suggest new metabolic targets for sepsis, in which previous nutritional interventions have largely proved unsuccessful.
6/26/23: Welcome Kadidja!
The Perry lab is delighted to welcome Kadidja Morou, a local high school student who will join us for a 6 week summer internship through the Yale Pathways to Science program! Kadidja will be working with Ngozi, trying to understand how exercise improves the response to immunotherapy in mice with triple negative breast cancer.
6/13/23: Andin receives a Predoctoral Award from the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation
The grant will fund Andin’s effort on our IRB-approved clinical trial (NCT05012982) examining the mechanisms by which blood flow restriction exercise, which accelerates recovery from orthopedic surgery, acts on the immunometabolome. It is awarded in recognition of Andin’s promise as a physician-scientist in the making. Congratulations Andin!
The photo on the left was not taken as part of the trial, and permission to post it on this website was granted by all included.
6/6/23: Andin receives a JEDI Award
Congratulations to Andin on her selection for one of this quarter’s JEDI awards from the Life Science Editors! We are grateful for their generous support in optimizing her upcoming F30 proposal on blood flow restriction during recovery from orthopedic surgery.
6/1/23: Welcome Isabella
The Perry lab is delighted to welcome Isabella Chavez Miranda, an undergraduate student from the University of Syracuse, who will be working with our lab through the Yale Biomed Amgen Scholars program this summer, expertly mentored by Andin Fosam. Welcome, Isabella!
5/23/23: Metabolic scaling paper published
In collaboration with Dr. Michael Pollak’s lab at McGill, we are delighted to share our new paper in eLife on metabolic scaling. In this work, we examine the scope and scale of metabolic scaling using isotope tracer techniques. Congrats to first author Ngozi and the rest of the team!
5/22/23: Dr. Li has graduated
Zongyu Li, Ph.D.: it’s official! Several members of the Perry lab were delighted to watch Zongyu receive his degree today. Congratulations Dr. Li!
5/4/23: Translational review on exercise and triple negative breast cancer published
Congratulations to Ngozi (first author) and all of our coauthors including Perry lab members Dennis and Ryan on the publication of our review on exercise and triple negative breast cancer in JNCI! This review was a wonderful team effort including collaboration from other translational and epidemiological researchers here at Yale, and we are thrilled to see it published!
5/1/23: Ngozi receives the Annie Le fellowship
Congratulations to Ngozi on being named the recipient of this year’s Annie Le fellowship. Named for a graduate student who tragically lost her life here at Yale, the fellowship recognizes one student each year for their community engagement, scholarly excellence, and strength of character. As I (Rachel) wrote in her nomination letter, I couldn’t think of a more deserving recipient, and am thrilled the selection community agreed!
4/21/23: Rachel receives an APS award
Rachel was honored to receive the American Physiological Society’s Endocrinology & Metabolism Section’s New Investigator Award at the society’s annual meeting!
4/10/23: Ngozi is a member of the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society
Congratulations to Ngozi on her induction into the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society at Yale! The society recognizes character, scholastic performance, and contributions to the community – so clearly Ngozi more than checks all the boxes!
4/1/23: Yanitza is a Yale President’s Public Service Fellow!
Yani has been recognized with a Yale President’s Public Service award, providing her a fellowship to work full-time this summer in the community development arena. While her final assignment is still pending, it is likely that she will work in an educational setting, lending (and further developing) her already impressive skills in teaching, mentoring, and outreach.
4/3/23: Vijayavalli’s commetary published
We are excited that Vijayavalli’s commentary is now published in the Journal of Physiology. Her commentary comes out just weeks after Viyajavalli joined the lab – very impressive!
3/24/23: Ngozi is a Ford Fellow!
Congratulations to Ngozi for her selection as a Ford Fellow. This is an extremely prestigious award given to fewer than 5% of applicants – worse odds than NIH grants! – and Ngozi’s selection represents her stellar academic prowess, promise as a scientist, and truly off-the-charts community engagement. We are so proud of Ngozi!
3/13/23: Welcome Yanitza
We are thrilled to welcome Yanitza Rodriguez as the newest member of the Perry lab. Yanitza is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico and first came to Yale as a postbaccalaureate associate, where she began to work with Rachel. After being accepted into the Yale TMMPP PhD program, we are delighted that Yanitza decided to rotate with and then join our lab – it feels to the Perry lab like she is coming home! Yanitza’s project will focus on the development of new therapeutic approaches for metabolic dysfunction in polycystic ovarian syndrome.
3/10/23: Wecome Azia and Vijayavalli
The Perry lab is delighted to welcome Azia Bunn (left) and Vijayavalli Thangaraj Panneerselvam (right) through the Yale Cancer Center’s Community Research Fellows program. Vijayavalli and Azia are members of the greater New Haven community who have signed up to join our lab and partner with us on communicating science in our projects related to the intersection between metabolism and cancer. We are delighted to have you both as Perry lab members!
3/6/23: Welcome Isaac
The Perry lab is delighted to welcome Isaac Kaba, a senior at the University of Toledo. Isaac is pursuing a BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences with a major in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry, and is working with the Perry lab, mentored by Dennis, to perform remote multi-Omics analysis in human tumor samples aimed at deepening our understanding of the links between metabolism and cancer.
2/16/23: Meet Dr. Li!
Congratulations to Dr. Zongyu Li on successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis in Cellular & Molecular Physiology! Zongyu led two stories on the regulation of gluconeogenesis under varied conditions of metabolic stress. As the first Ph.D. student to join a new PI’s lab, the new Dr. Li has proven himself to be brave and resilient throughout his journey in the Perry lab!
2/9/23: Andin is a PhD candidate
Congratulations Andin on advancing to candidacy in Cellular & Molecular Physiology! Andin’s translational project will examine how blood flow restriction improves recovery from ACL reconstruction.
2/3/23: Ryan’s paper is published
Congratulations Ryan! His paper demonstrating how the impact of CPT-1 expression on breast cancer prognosis depends on body composition and other clinical variables was published today in PLOS One. Ryan is the first high school student to publish a first author paper in the Perry lab; what a great achievement!
1/13/23: Rachel receives the 2022 Yale Cancer Center Translational Research Prize
This prize was awarded in recognition of Akingbesote et al. 2022 and Leitner et al. 2022. Rachel is humbled by and grateful for this honor from the Yale Cancer Center!
12/16/22: The lab receives an R21 on exercise and lung cancer
We are humbled to announce that we have received R21 funding from the NCI to study whether and by what mechanism aerobic exercise may improve the response to immunotherapy for lung cancer in mice. The third submission was the charm! With this project, we hope to generate mechanistic evidence in support of clinical trials to develop lifestyle modifications (i.e., exercise) for patients with or at risk for lung cancer.
12/2/22: Xinyi’s paper published in Cancer & Metabolism
Congratulations to Xinyi, whose paper titled “Isotope tracing reveals distinct substrate preference in murine melanoma subtypes with differing anti-tumor immunity” was published in Cancer & Metabolism today! In this work, we utilized in vitro and in vivo murine melanoma models across a spectrum of immunogenicity to reveal a greater metabolic dependence in cell lines with higher immunogenicity. These data corroborate – but much additional work will be required to confirm – the hypothesis that nutrient competition in the tumor microenvironment may be one of the mechanisms by which the immune system suppresses tumor progression.
Figure: from Zhang et al. Cancer & Metabolism 2022
11/17/22: Ngozi receives a Yale Dean’s Emerging Scholars research award
Congratulations to Ngozi who was selected for a Yale Graduate School Dean’s Emerging Scholars award! This award recognizes her as a young scholarly leader and provides support for career development activities she may pursue. Congratulations Ngozi on this well-deserved recognition!
9/6/22: Brooks gives an oral presentation at a Keystone tumor immunometabolism meeting
Brooks did an excellent job speaking to a full room of experts in tumor immunometabolism at the Keystone Immunometabolism at the Crossroads of Obesity and Cancer meeting. A densely packed 10 min talk at 11,000 feet elevation is no small feat, and Brooks pulled it off beautifully!
9/1/22: Welcome Andin!
We are excited to welcome Andin Fosam, an MD/PhD student who has decided to do her PhD in the Perry lab! Andin is already the first author of a review on metabolism and cancer from her rotation in the lab (during the dark days of summer 2020…), and her PhD project will focus on the mechanisms by which blood flow restriction enhances rehabilitation from ACL reconstruction in humans and rats.
8/22/22: Welcome Sita!
We’re pleased to welcome Sita Kottilil as the newest Perry lab member! Sita is a sophomore at Yale who is interested in biomedical research. She will be working with Ngozi on a project aiming to understand the mechanisms of how exercise improves prognosis in breast cancer, and examining whether exercise may be a useful adjuvant to the recently-approved immunotherapy for breast cancer patients.
8/8/22: Welcome Susana!
It’s a delight to welcome Susana Nakandakari to the lab! Susana is a PhD student in Brazil who will be joining the Perry and Wang labs for the next year. She is interested in metabolism and sepsis, and will join our mouse infusion team. Glad to have you onboard, Susana!
8/4/22: Briana’s summer in our lab has flown by!
We are sad to say goodbye (for now) to Briana, but congratulate her on the wonderful job she did this summer! We appreciate the great job she did working on fatty acid oxidation in melanoma cells, as well as helping Xinyi with behavioral tests in mice. It was a pleasure to have you, Briana!
7/18/22: The Perry lab welcomes visitors from the Yale Pathways to Science program
Briana, Xinyi, and Rachel enjoyed welcoming local high school students to the Perry lab today for a session focused on exercise physiology! Students had a chance to try three tests with the mice (hands-off, following all the rules): swim test, grip strength test, and maximal speed test. We developed hypotheses as to who would perform better and worse, and tested them. Most were correct (unlike the majority of scientific experiments). By the end, students were cheering on the mice! It was a joy to have the students in the lab, and we hope to do this again.
7/17/22: Stephan’s commentary is published in Diabetes Practice Update
Stephan’s commentary on SGLT2 inhibitors for patients with type 1 diabetes came out today in Diabetes Practice Update. The commentary can be found here. Nice job!
6/10/22: Introducing Dr. Leitner!
Congratulations, Dr. Leitner! Brooks is the first student to earn their PhD from the Perry lab, and it was a tour de force. His thesis, titled “Translational Systems Metabolism in Health and Disease,” received rave reviews from his committee and from the audience. Brooks is now back to his clinical rotations to complete his MD, and at the same time finishing up two more papers in the Perry lab!
6/6/22: Briana joins the lab
Welcome to Briana Robles, a student at the University of Florida who will be joining us for the summer through the Yale BioMed Amgen Scholars program! Briana will be mentored by Xinyi Zhang on a project related to fatty acid metabolism and melanoma.
6/5/22: Zongyu’s first conference poster presentation
Zongyu presented his first conference poster today at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association (an international meeting). You can review his abstract here!
5/31/22: Dennis joins the lab
Welcome Dennis! He is a recent graduate of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, and will be joining us to perform some remote data analysis in projects related to metabolism and cancer. One of these is a review on exercise and cancer, in collaboration with Ngozi, Ryan, and Rachel.
5/25/22: Ryan awarded a dkNET Summer of Data award
Wow! Our off-site high school lab member, Ryan, has just been awarded a dkNET Summer of Data award! This program supports high school and college students performing diabetes-related research affiliated with labs throughout the country. Way to go, Ryan!
5/20/22: Ngozi’s paper on dapa and chemotherapy published
Ngozi recently reported a precision medicine approach to metabolic therapy for breast cancer using an SGLT2 inhibitor! We are eager to translate this to humans, and are in discussions with Astra Zeneca and with Dr. Maryam Lustburg about a clinical trial to follow up on Ngozi’s data.
Figure: Akingbesote et al. Comms. Biol. 2022.
4/26/22: Alex wins the Boell Prize
Wow! Alex has just earned the Boell Prize, awarded annually to the top graduating senior in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. She conducted her senior research in the Perry lab, where she was expertly mentored by Xinyi.
3/28/22: Ngozi is a PhD candidate
Congratulations to Ngozi on passing her PhD qualifying exam by a wide margin! Her committee was impressed by her cogent plan for her PhD research and training, centered around her studies in breast cancer immunometabolism and exercise.
3/18/22: Insulin & cancer review published
Congratulations to Brooks, Stephan, Ngozi, and Xinyi! Our review, “Insulin and cancer: a tangled web” was just published by Biochemical Journal. This was our first “team review,” and it was a fun experience overall. Thanks to the whole team for their contributions!
3/5/22: Ngozi selected for a GEM summer internship
Ngozi has been awarded a well-deserved summer internship through the GEM program. She will be conducting research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, studying new ways to target new therapies to cancer cells.
2/18/22: Kyle’s paper published
Congratulations to Kyle! His paper, with Brooks’ support, was published today in Physiological Reports. Over the summer, Kyle optimized a method to measure tissue glycogen content using a simple, inexpensive method. You can check it out here, and please feel free to contact us if you would like an even more detailed protocol.
2/14/22: Welcome Ryan!
We are delighted to welcome Ryan Liu to work with us remotely from his home in Texas. Rachel was really impressed by Ryan’s initiative in contacting her and becoming part of the lab! Ryan will be working with us on data analysis related to obesity and cancer.
1/27/22: Brooks’ npj Precision Oncology paper published
Congratulations to Brooks and the rest of our team on the publication of their new paper in npj Precision Oncology. In this work, we utilize a multi-omics approach to identify new features of the relationships between body weight, tumor genomics, and tumor metabolism. This work was completed thanks to Brooks’ ability to quickly pivot to in silico work during an era of supply chain issues and limited funding in the lab. Well done!
12/21/21: News of a JDRF award
We have received the good news of an Innovative Award from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, supporting our work aiming to identify a new hypoglycemia counterregulatory factor! This work will be conducted in close collaboration with Dr. Andrew Wang, co-PI of the award.
12/3/21: First Perry lab R01 funded – and upgraded!
Rachel is humbled and grateful to announce that our first R01, titled “Defining the Role of Renal Gluconeogenesis in Renal Cell Carcinoma,” has been selected for funding by the NIH (NCI)! The publicly available abstract reads as follows:
Renal cell carcinoma is the most common primary kidney cancer, representing 90-95% of primary renal neoplasms. Obesity and diabetes are associated with an increased risk of renal cell carcinoma, but the mechanisms by which systemic metabolic changes promote tumor progression are unknown. Although its reputation as a glucose-producing organ has been dwarfed by that of the liver over the years, the kidney possesses the same complement of gluconeogenic enzymes as the liver – with a higher concentration of gluconeogenic proteins per gram of tissue in the kidney, suggesting that its gluconeogenic capacity may even exceed the liver’s. Glucose is well-known to be a crucial substrate for tumor growth; given the gluconeogenic activity of the kidney, it is likely that increased renal gluconeogenesis may fuel tumor growth. However, this phenomenon, and its mechanistic explanation, remains to be explored. We have recently found that fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21) promotes renal gluconeogenesis during starvation by activating intrarenal lipolysis through a b2-adrenergic pathway, thereby activating pyruvate carboxylase flux in healthy rodents. Therefore, this proposal will test the Overarching Hypothesis that in renal cell carcinoma, increased FGF-21 acts through a similar mechanism to promote intrarenal lipolysis, pyruvate carboxylase activity, and as a result, gluconeogenesis, and that this increased renal glucose supply fuels tumor growth. We will also examine the utility of an FGF-21 neutralizing antibody against mice genetically prone to renal cell carcinoma, which we anticipate will reduce renal gluconeogenesis and renal cell carcinoma progression. If the hypotheses are confirmed, these data would identify FGF-21 – which is already being targeted in advanced clinical trials for metabolism- and diabetes-related indications – as a potential therapeutic target in renal cell carcinoma.
This project will be conducted collaboratively with Drs. Adewobale Adeniran and Andrew Wang.
It was extra exciting to learn that the grant is eligible for conversion from a 5-year R01 to a 7-year R37 MERIT (Method to Extent Research In Time) award! We are committed to doing the most we can with this award to make discoveries in mice that may predict how metabolism can be targeted to improve outcomes for patients with renal cell carcinoma.
Important note: Although this is our first funded R01, it is *far* from the first NIH grant Rachel has submitted. For anyone wanting to commiserate about the ups and downs of the grant writing process, feel free to contact her!
11/5/21: Brooks receives a travel award to the Keystone tumor immunometabolism meeting
Based on his excellent abstract, Brooks was selected to receive a travel award to the Keystone Tumor Immunometabolism meeting in Banff in January 2022. Congratulations!
Airplane figure from Biorender.com.
11/1/21: Rachel gives a keynote talk on cancer metabolism
Rachel had the honor of giving the keynote address at the City of Hope Diabetes and Cancer meeting, joining an excellent group of speakers in the world of metabolism and cancer. It’s too bad it had to be on Zoom this time, but hopefully in the near future we can come together again.
8/5/21: Kyle finishes a publishable project in 8 weeks
Kyle has completed an amazing summer of work, during which he undertook an almost completely independent project, with logistical support from Brooks, optimizing a method to quantify tissue glycogen. We will miss you, Kyle!
7/8/21: Congratulations Dr. Dr. Dr. Siebel!
Congratulations to Stephan, who has just defended his second PhD, in the Kibbey lab and through the Investigative Medicine program. Dr. Siebel’s work focused on the development and validation of new stable isotope tracer methodology to assess liver fluxes. Stayed tuned for his paper to come out soon in a journal near you!
6/23/21: Ngozi is selected for the Cancer Biology Training Program
The Yale Cancer Biology Training Program provides comprehensive training across basic biology, epidemiology, and clinical research and care to pre- and post-doctoral trainees. As you can imagine from its description, this is a very popular program with a competitive application process. We are thrilled that Ngozi has been selected to participate! Her clinical mentor will be Dr. Maryam Lustberg, Director of Breast Medical Oncology at Smilow Cancer Hospital.
6/7/21: Welcoming Kyle to the lab
We are delighted to welcome Kyle Schaubroeck to the Perry lab. Kyle is at Yale for the summer as a BioMed Amgen Scholar. A recent college graduate, he will be heading to the University of Wisconsin for his PhD in the fall. We are glad that Kyle has decided to make a detour to New Haven in between!
6/3/21: Xinyi is a PhD candidate!
Although there was no doubt about the outcome beforehand, many congratulations to Xinyi, who passed her qualifying exam! Her project focuses on mitochondrial uncoupling as an adjuvant to melanoma treatment (immunotherapy) in mice. Xinyi is now a PhD candidate in Cellular & Molecular Physiology!
4/23/21: Rachel is recognized as a NYAS Rising Star of Cancer Metabolism and Signaling
Rachel was delighted to participate in a NYAS webinar featuring young investigators selected as rising stars in cancer metabolism!
4/21/21: Rachel receives a Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator Award
We’re excited to share that Rachel has been selected for a Young Investigator Award from the Melanoma Research Alliance. This project will investigate how a mitochondrial uncoupler may be of utility to treat melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Dr. Marcus Bosenberg, of Yale Dermatology, Pathology, and Immunobiology, has generously agreed to participate in this project as well.
2/24/21: Ngozi joins the lab
We are delighted to welcome Ngozi Akingbesote, who has joined our lab as a first year PhD student!
11/12/20: First Perry lab oral abstract presentation
Congratulations to Brooks, who gave an excellent oral abstract presentation from the Perry lab today at the Integrative Physiology of Exercise meeting via Zoom. He’s set the bar high for oral presentations from the lab, and we look forward to more to come (hopefully not all on zoom)!
10/26/20: Chigoziri’s review in press
Congratulations to Chigoziri! His review, “Imeglimin – Current Development and Future Potential in Type 2 Diabetes,” was accepted for publication today. Check it out here!
Figure ref: Konkwo & Perry, Drugs 2020.
9/25/20: Happy birthday!
A socially distanced happy birthday (two days apart) to Zongyu and Brooks!
9/20: Lab moves to SHM
The Perry lab has quadrupled in physical space this month, moving from TAC to SHM. Thanks to all lab members for their work cleaning and organizing our new home!
Before
After
8/17/20: Andin’s review in press
Congratulations to Andin, whose review, “Current Mechanisms in Obesity and Tumor Progression,” has just been published in Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care. Check it out here (please email Rachel if you would like the full text).
7/1/20: Welcome Chigoziri, Brooks, Andin, Xinyi, and Stephan
The Perry lab is delighted to welcome five new members:
Chigoziri Konkwo, a rising 2nd year med student, is performing a virtual rotation analyzing tumor transcriptomic data and correlating these data to obesity.
Brooks Leitner, a rising 3rd year MD/PhD student, has joined the lab to pursue a project on exercise and cancer.
Andin Fosam, a rising 1st year MD/PhD student, is performing a virtual rotation aiming to understand why obesity is protective in lung cancer, in contrast to many other tumor types.
Xinyi Zhang, a rising 2nd year PhD student, has chosen to join the lab for her doctoral work despite only having the opportunity to do a virtual rotation during a very strange time! She will focus on metabolic therapy for melanoma.
Stephan Siebel, MD, PD, is an Instructor and expert in tracer methodology/mass spec joining the lab to perform stable isotope studies to understand obesity/cancer pathogenesis.
5/8/20: Zongyu has successfully qualified
Congratulations to Zongyu for passing his qualifying exam (via zoom) with flying colors! His committee were all impressed by his qualifying proposal exploring a novel factor in hypoglycemia counterregulation and his responses to their many questions.
2/3/20: Paper in press
Congratulations to Brooks on his paper in press at JNCI Cancer Spectrum: “The Impact of Obesity on Tumor Glucose Uptake in Breast and Lung Cancer.” This work, analyzing human PET-CT scans to correlate tumor glucose uptake to body mass index, was done over his five-week rotation in the lab (!) and demonstrates that previous findings from the lab – that tumor glucose uptake/oxidation are increased by obesity-associated hyperinsulinemia – may translate to humans. You can read the paper here.
Perry Lab 