ada891bImmunology, Cancer, & Cell Metabolism - The Mlynarczyk Lab at Yale School of Medicine3-2d4a-4bb3-8b9b-c04e87606206

Transcript

• 00:05Mature basal lymphoma is a
• 00:07cancer of our immune system,
• 00:09and it comes from white
• 00:12blood cells. They're called b
• 00:13lymphocytes,
• 00:14also commonly known as b
• 00:16cells,
• 00:17that have matured in a
• 00:18bone marrow, but then migrated
• 00:19to secondary lymphoid organs such
• 00:21as the spleen and the
• 00:23lymph nodes.
• 00:24There, they can be activated
• 00:27when we have an infection,
• 00:30and they will play a
• 00:31fundamental role in our immune
• 00:34response to these pathogens in
• 00:36order to eliminate them.
• 00:38That's kind of a a
• 00:40treason
• 00:41from these cells because they
• 00:42are supposed to protect us,
• 00:44but can actually become cancer
• 00:45themselves.
• 00:47And because they are b
• 00:48cells, they can travel
• 00:50throughout the body and can
• 00:52have this potential to disseminate
• 00:54the cancer through multiple tissues,
• 00:56which makes them, very dangerous.
• 01:03B cells themselves mutate their
• 01:06antibody genes,
• 01:07and the goal is to
• 01:09improve their affinity against the
• 01:11pathogen that was encountered. But
• 01:13at the same time, they
• 01:14need to rapidly proliferate,
• 01:16which sets the stage for
• 01:18the acquisition of unwanted mutations.
• 01:20And the second step is
• 01:22these cells, after mutating,
• 01:24they need to compete with
• 01:25each other based on their
• 01:27affinity
• 01:28to survive because the cells
• 01:30have to
• 01:31survive this very intense
• 01:34process, they are at a
• 01:35very high risk of becoming
• 01:36cancerous.
• 01:37So that's where my lab
• 01:39comes in, and we are
• 01:40trying to really understand the
• 01:42biology of these tumors, how
• 01:43they develop, what makes them
• 01:45resistant to treatment, then maybe
• 01:47we can identify their vulnerabilities,
• 01:49what they depend on to
• 01:50survive, and start targeting these
• 01:52processes.
• 01:56We utilize
• 01:57precise immunological
• 01:59techniques
• 02:00that allow us to actually
• 02:03place b cells in competition
• 02:05with each other and to
• 02:06track these cells as they
• 02:08compete with each other to
• 02:09determine what they become and
• 02:11how cells that are winning
• 02:13the competition
• 02:14differ from cells that are
• 02:15losing the competition.
• 02:17We are also very much
• 02:18interested in understanding the metabolic
• 02:21regulation
• 02:22because for cells to survive
• 02:24and proliferate
• 02:25as they become cancer, they
• 02:26need energy to fuel their
• 02:28growth. And so we are
• 02:30interested in understanding
• 02:31what fuels these cells and
• 02:34how they use their energy.
• 02:35So maybe we can identify
• 02:37metabolic vulnerabilities of these tumors.
• 02:40We then can take tumors
• 02:42and actually grow them in
• 02:44the lab. So we can
• 02:45test their response to different
• 02:47stimuli,
• 02:48the presence of other cells,
• 02:50the viability
• 02:51of different metabolic precursors,
• 02:53which is easier to modulate
• 02:55in the petri dish.
• 02:56And we also utilize
• 02:58tissues
• 02:59from tumors, and so we
• 03:01hope to identify
• 03:03things that they really need
• 03:05to thrive,
• 03:06not only in the lymphoid
• 03:07tissues, but also as they
• 03:09disseminate to other very different
• 03:11tissues throughout the body.
• 03:17If we are able to
• 03:19understand
• 03:19what differentiates
• 03:21a very aggressive,
• 03:22non responsive
• 03:24tumor, we can potentially
• 03:26identify
• 03:27the vulnerabilities of these tumors
• 03:29and design
• 03:31improved and personalized treatments for
• 03:33patients who currently remain incurable.
• 03:35I'm hoping that
• 03:37with this research, we are
• 03:38going to be able to
• 03:39advance
• 03:41biomedical research,
• 03:43not only to understand and
• 03:45better harness the capabilities of
• 03:47our immune system, but also
• 03:48to understand why cancer develops
• 03:50and how.