Cancer metabolic reprogramming is an important hallmark of cancer. It relies of the fact that cancer tissue possesses several important metabolic features, such as differential utilization of many essential metabolites. Cancer metabolic reprogramming is required for malignant transformation, tumor development, invasion and metastasis. Its complex and dynamic nature has been recognized as one of the major challenges for effective cancer treatment. Therefore, a better understanding of metabolic dependencies in specific tumor types can provide a path for improved cancer treatments.
However, no efficient methodologies currently exist that allow noninvasive imaging and quantification of the uptake of essential metabolites in animal models of disease. To address the unmet need for nutrient uptake imaging tools, we decided to develop a novel platform based on a combination of versatile “click” chemistry reactions with noninvasive, ultrasensitive bioluminescent imaging techniques.
The results will lead to the generation of novel, effective treatments; therefore, this novel platform has high clinical applicability. Due to its versatile nature, application of the platform can be expended to studies of many other important human pathologies in which changes in metabolism play a key role, such as diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and many others. Please see the first demonstration of the platform recently published in Nature Methods (2019).
Cancer metabolic reprogramming is an important hallmark of cancer. It relies of the fact that cancer tissue possesses several important metabolic features, such as differential utilization of many essential metabolites. Cancer metabolic reprogramming is required for malignant transformation, tumor development, invasion and metastasis. Its complex and dynamic nature has been recognized as one of the major challenges for effective cancer treatment. Therefore, a better understanding of metabolic dependencies in specific tumor types can provide a path for improved cancer treatments.
However, no efficient methodologies currently exist that allow noninvasive imaging and quantification of the uptake of essential metabolites in animal models of disease. To address the unmet need for nutrient uptake imaging tools, we decided to develop a novel platform based on a combination of versatile “click” chemistry reactions with noninvasive, ultrasensitive bioluminescent imaging techniques.
The results will lead to the generation of novel, effective treatments; therefore, this novel platform has high clinical applicability. Due to its versatile nature, application of the platform can be expended to studies of many other important human pathologies in which changes in metabolism play a key role, such as diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and many others. Please see the first demonstration of the platform recently published in Nature Methods (2019).
Cancer metabolic reprogramming is an important hallmark of cancer. It relies of the fact that cancer tissue possesses several important metabolic features, such as differential utilization of many essential metabolites. Cancer metabolic reprogramming is required for malignant transformation, tumor development, invasion and metastasis. Its complex and dynamic nature has been recognized as one of the major challenges for effective cancer treatment. Therefore, a better understanding of metabolic dependencies in specific tumor types can provide a path for improved cancer treatments.
However, no efficient methodologies currently exist that allow noninvasive imaging and quantification of the uptake of essential metabolites in animal models of disease. To address the unmet need for nutrient uptake imaging tools, we decided to develop a novel platform based on a combination of versatile “click” chemistry reactions with noninvasive, ultrasensitive bioluminescent imaging techniques.
The results will lead to the generation of novel, effective treatments; therefore, this novel platform has high clinical applicability. Due to its versatile nature, application of the platform can be expended to studies of many other important human pathologies in which changes in metabolism play a key role, such as diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and many others. Please see the first demonstration of the platform recently published in Nature Methods (2019).
Elena Goun received her MSc degree from the University of Central Florida (USA) in the field of medicinal chemistry under supervision of Professor Howard Miles. She then continued her PhD studies in the field of medicinal chemistry and drug delivery in the group of Professor Paul Wender at Stanford University (USA), where she received extensive training in the field of organic synthetic chemistry and in methods for the development of novel drug delivery. After earning her PhD in 2008, Elena moved to the University of California at Berkeley (USA), where she performed her postdoctoral studies in the field of chemical biology in the group of Carolyn Bertozzi. In September 2011, Elena Goun was appointed at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland), where for the first 3 years, she was responsible for running an academic exchange program for Russian students and faculty, which was the biggest international program in Switzerland (total funding of 8 million CHF). In August 2014, Elena launched her independent career as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, EPFL. Elena is an advocate for interdisciplinary approaches to research, combining organic synthetic chemistry and optical imaging to find solutions to fundamental problems in biology and medicine.
.png)
Professor Elena Goun
Elena Goun received her MSc degree from the University of Central Florida (USA) in the field of medicinal chemistry under supervision of Professor Howard Miles. She then continued her PhD studies in the field of medicinal chemistry and drug delivery in the group of Professor Paul Wender at Stanford University (USA), where she received extensive training in the field of organic synthetic chemistry and in methods for the development of novel drug delivery. After earning her PhD in 2008, Elena moved to the University of California at Berkeley (USA), where she performed her postdoctoral studies in the field of chemical biology in the group of Carolyn Bertozzi. In September 2011, Elena Goun was appointed at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland), where for the first 3 years, she was responsible for running an academic exchange program for Russian students and faculty, which was the biggest international program in Switzerland (total funding of 8 million CHF). In August 2014, Elena launched her independent career as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, EPFL.
Dr. Pavlo Khodakivskyi
Research Assistant Professor
Pavlo completed his M.S. degree in Inorganic Chemistry at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine) in 2001. His thesis was focused on the study of magnetic properties of polynuclear coordination compounds. After graduation, he joined the R&D department at Enamine Ltd. (Kyiv, Ukraine) where he developed novel tools for production of organic compounds for medicinal chemistry. In 2010, he received his Ph.D. degree in Organic chemistry from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine). His doctoral thesis was focused on the development of novel tools for the synthesis of fluoroorganic and heterocyclic compounds. In 2014, Dr. Khodakivskyi joined the laboratory of Prof. Elena Goun at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL, Switzerland) as a postdoctoral fellow. His research work was focused on the development of novel imaging tools for visualization of biological processes such as metabolite absorption and functions of gut microbiota. Since fall 2020, Dr. Khodakivskyi continues his research in the field of molecular imaging at the University of Missouri, Columbia as an Assistant Research Professor.
Dr. Arkadiy Bazhin
Postdoctoral Fellow
Arkadiy graduated with MS degree in pharmaceutic sciences from Perm Pharmaceutical Academy in 2011. In 2012, he joined the research laboratory of Prof. Elena Goun at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL, Switzerland) as a doctoral student. His doctoral work was focused on the development of novel imaging tools for probing mitochondrial activity and enzymatic functions such as Dipeptidyl peptidase-4. After graduation with his PhD in the field of chemical biology in 2018, he performed 2-year postdoctoral training in University of Lausanne (UNIL, Switzerland) where he continued working on the development of tool to probe mitochondrial function.
Dr. Tamara Maric
Postdoctoral Fellow
Tamara had successfully completed her BS and MS studies in Biochemistry at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia where she a receiver of prestigious Zois scholarship for her outstanding scholar performance. In November 2015, Tamara he joined the research laboratory of Prof. Elena Goun at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL, Switzerland) as a doctoral student. Her doctoral work was focused on the development of novel imaging tools for metabolite absorption. Tamara successfully graduated with PhD in chemical biology in 2020 and won “the best PhD thesis award” from the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, EPFL.
Ekaterina Solodnikova
PhD student
Ekaterina completed her M.S. degree at Saint Petersburg State Chemical Pharmaceutical Academy (Russia) majoring in pharmaceutical technology. Her research was focused on the investigation of plant cells growth and production of biological compounds under various environmental stress conditions. After graduation with MS degree in 2014, she performed an internship in Clinical Sciences & Innovation/Autoimmunity department of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (Switzerland). Then, Ekaterina joined an international contract research organization (ZM CRO Group, Canada) where she was involved in drug safety research. In 2019, Ekaterina joined the research laboratory of Prof. Elena Goun at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL, Switzerland) as a doctoral student. In January 2021, Ekaterina transferred to University of Missouri, Columbia where she continues her doctoral studies.