Crossing the Line: Nutrient Transport and Metabolic Homeostasis
Event Details
- Type
- Friday Lecture Series
- Speaker(s)
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Kivanç Birsoy, Ph.D., Chapman Perelman Associate Professor and head, Laboratory of Metabolic Regulation and Genetics, The Rockefeller University
- Speaker bio(s)
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Metabolism comprises the chemical reactions that sustain life. To maintain their homeostasis, cells tightly regulate nutrient concentrations across membranes, a process primarily mediated by metabolite transporters. These transporters not only control nutrient uptake from the environment but also shape compartmentalized metabolism within organelles such as mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum. However, for many transporters, their substrates, physiological roles, and impact on metabolic homeostasis remain poorly understood. This gap is particularly critical in the context of redox balance, where selective transport mechanisms—exemplified by glutathione metabolism—maintain distinct redox states across compartments. In this talk, Dr. Birsoy will discuss emerging principles of organellar nutrient transport, tools to study compartmentalized metabolism, and how these processes are disrupted in cancer and neurodegeneration.
Kivanç Birsoy received his Ph.D. in molecular genetics in 2009 from Rockefeller, where he was a member of Jeffrey M. Friedman’s lab. He was a postdoc at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, where he was a member of David M. Sabatini’s lab. In 2015 Birsoy returned to Rockefeller as an assistant professor, and he was promoted to associate professor in 2022.
He has received a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, a Pershing Square Sohn Prize, an AACR NextGen Award for Transformative Cancer Research, an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, and American Society for Cell Biology Innovation in Research Award. He has also been recognized as a Blavatnik National Award Finalist in Life Sciences, a Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research, a Mark Foundation Emerging Leader, a Searle Scholar, and most recently, a CZI Investigator.
- Open to
- Tri-Institutional