Posted on | CategoriesBiochemistry / College of Health / Nutrition & Integrative Physiology / School of Medicine | PI: Jared P. Rutter, PhD & Kevin Hicks, PhD

Finding Inspiration for Drug Development in Metabolic Regulators

The metabolic pathways that shape how our bodies use nutrients and energy are under constant adjustment, with metabolites pay a key role in managing their function and activity. There are thousands of metabolites inside our cells, and surprisingly little is known about how most of them interact with other cellular components, even though when these interactions with proteins are disrupted, it can leave us more vulnerable to disease. Continue reading → Finding Inspiration for Drug Development in Metabolic Regulators

Research Statement

The Hicks Lab is focused on two broad areas of research and development:

    1. Understanding how metabolism regulates metabolism. There are many well established examples of metabolites regulating specific metabolic enzymes via allosteric and orthosteric interactions. These intra- and inter-pathway protein-metabolite interactions serve as feedforward and feedback mechanisms to govern metabolic pathway function, flux, and directionality. The extent of these regulatory protein-metabolite interactions across metabolism is unknown. The Hicks lab uses innovative and systematic mass spectrometry approaches to identify enzyme-metabolite interactions and a compliment of molecular, biochemical, genetic, and cellular tools to reveal their biological function. Systematically revealing the mechanisms of metabolic regulation of human metabolic pathways is critical for a complete understanding of metabolism and how diverse cellular processes are regulated or dysregulated in healthy and disease states.
  1. Development of interactome discovery technologies. The strengths of the MIDAS platform can be harnessed to reveal interactions between molecules beyond soluble proteins and metabolites, opening new avenues of biological investigation. We are adapting the MIDAS platform to identify membrane protein-metabolite, protein-metabolome, protein-peptide, protein-chemical fragment, and RNA-metabolite interactions using targeted and non-targeted liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. These interactomics platforms will broaden our understanding of the scope, depth, and functions of interacting biological networks, provide inclusive discovery platforms for the scientific community, and catalyze therapeutic discovery.

Hicks Lab