Investigating the mechanisms of action of intracellular anaerobic pathogens on human host cancer cell metabolic networks

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common cancer in men worldwide and ~307,000 men die every year. We know that infectious agents, such as bacteria and viruses, are involved in the development of a variety of cancers such as cervical, stomach, and bladder cancer. The causes of PCa and the development of advanced disease remains obscure, but there is good evidence that infectious agents could be one cause. In this project the candidate will examine how bacteria effect prostate cancer cells through metabolic networks. They will perform computational analyses to reveal potential mechanisms of action and generate genome-scale metabolic models of bacteria and human cancer cell interactions. They will perform experiments to determine the metabolomic profiles linked with prostate cancer in cells and human prostate tissue explants, and they will investigate expression profile changes in bacteria and human tissue using RNAseq. This research has the potential to reveal how bacteria causes prostate cancer to develop and reveal new treatment possibilities to prevent or halt aggressive cancer.