Dr. Gustavo A. Palacios is working in St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, USA as an experienced scientist with independence and leadership skills in basic & translational research with extensive experience in molecular genetics and analytical approaches to studying cancer and metabolic disorders.
Abstract
Immune-mediated responses, like inflammation, are virtually ubiquitous events in most diseases such as infections and cancers. Although there are numerous ways of how scientific questions related to these processes can be addressed, metabolomics has been used rather sporadically to interrogate physiologic and pathologic mechanisms in these contexts. As a result, immunity-associated metabolism and metabolic conditions under infections or in tumor microenvironments remain largely unexplored. On the other hand, the activity of the immune cells during the clearance of infectious pathogens or cancer cells has significant metabolic consequences, leading to the production of cytokines or cytotoxic molecules like reactive oxygen species, which contribute to the elimination of invading pathogens. Metabolomics profiling provides significant insights into the mechanisms of the physiologic immune response and alterations thereof induced by therapeutic interventions. Therefore, we are broadly using metabolomics to address unknown questions about the processes and mechanisms underlying the immune responses under different scenarios. Altogether, with well-established strategies such as cytological phenotypic profiling, genomics, and proteomics, the use of metabolomics will contribute to a more comprehensive knowledge of how the immune and metabolic responses impact immune-mediated processes.
