Winter 2024
By Kathy Clute
Photography by Sam Ogden
The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research has awarded a $750,000 Emerging Leader Award to Edward Chouchani, PhD, to build on his groundbreaking discovery that a substance long thought to be an inert byproduct of cell growth and division actually plays a key role in controlling cell proliferation.
For almost a century, scientists believed that lactate—prevalent in rapidly growing and metastatic cancers—was merely a byproduct of glycolysis, one of the ways cells produce energy as they grow and divide. But Chouchani’s lab has established that the molecule is a critical metabolic signal in cancer cells.
Chouchani and his team in the Department of Cancer Biology use mass spectrometry and biochemical approaches to understand how metabolites regulate cellular function in pre-clinical models of health and disease. They have spent years developing new techniques to learn which proteins respond directly to sharp rises in lactate and studying the basic biochemical mechanisms involved.
“We now know that lactate plays an active part in helping cancer cells grow by binding directly to a core regulator of cell cycle,” said Chouchani. “With this funding from The Mark Foundation, we will systematically characterize the mechanisms and targets through which lactate can regulate tumor growth and metastasis. We hope this will open up new possibilities for cancer treatment.”
Mark Foundation CEO Ryan Schoenfeld, PhD, noted that the organization’s Emerging Leader Award “enables the next generation of oncology superstars to take more risks at an earlier stage of their career by pursuing innovative projects that might never launch without our support.”
Founded in 2017, The Mark Foundation partners with scientists worldwide to accelerate research that will transform cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. It has awarded more than $220 million in grants to investigators at more than 100 academic institutions in 16 countries.