Luke Ferro (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Alterations in cellular metabolism are a hallmark of cancer. Metabolic changes affect both cancer cell proliferation and aggressiveness. Polyamines are compounds produced by the cell with two or more primary amine groups. These molecules are essential to processes involving rapid cell proliferation, such as cancer, embryo development, wound healing and parasitic infections. However, their exact mechanism of action in the cell is not well understood. My project is to investigate the functional roles of polyamines in cells. I am using yeast as a model system and conducting genome-wide, synthetic lethality screens and translational profiling.
Contact: ferro [at] wi.mit.edu