Affiliations

Associate Director, Basic/Translational Research, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

Associate Professor, Biological Chemistry

We are studying the interconnection of growth factor signaling and cell metabolism. In particular, we are interested in how signaling pathways control metabolic fluxes and the impact this may have on diseases such as cancer. It has long been appreciated that cancer cells exhibit an altered metabolism compared to their normal cell counterparts. We have discovered one mechanism by which cancer cells achieve this altered metabolism, and our findings support the idea that this is required to support cell growth. We are now exploring additional mechanisms of metabolic regulation with the goals of identifying novel drug targets for cancer and other proliferative disorders and better defining the role of metabolism in cell growth.

Heather Christofk is an Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry at UCLA.  She earned a B.S. in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology at UCLA in 2001, and a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology at Harvard in 2007.  The goal of Dr. Christofk’s research is to understand the regulation and role of metabolic transitions in cellular transformation, virus infection, and differentiation.  She is a Searle Scholar and recipient of the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, and an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award.

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