Our lab is located at the Dell Pediatric Research Institute, which is part of the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School.

Research interests in the laboratory focus on translational chemical biology using a cutting-edge metabolomics-based systems biology approach for metabolic biomarker discovery. The laboratory combines high-throughput screening measurements, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry-based metabolomics/lipidomics, and metabolic flux analysis to gain a better bio-mechanistic understanding of the effects of combined drug treatment and nutrient modulation in cancer and in other non-cancer conditions. The research is actively devoted to developing, integrating, and correlating metabolomics-based phenotypic screens in three-dimensional model systems to identify cancer vulnerabilities and accelerate the identification of novel synergistic combinatorial treatment for both drug discovery and personalized therapy.

The lab is also interested in oxidative stress, energy balance in diet, and obesity in cancer risk. Individuals with imbalanced nutritional habits are more vulnerable to metabolic diseases. In this context, the chemical analysis of the metabolome in human biofluids and tissues can provide a wealth of information on human health, including the assessment of disease state and diagnosis, drug targets and, toxicity.