Our lab aims to achieve a quantitative, comprehensive understanding of cellular metabolism. Our motivation for studying metabolism is two-fold. From a basic science perspective, the molecular connections involved in metabolism are the best understood of any major biochemical network. Accordingly, metabolism provides a unique opportunity for quantitative analysis. From a practical perspective, derangements of metabolism are a major cause of disease, and small molecules that inhibit metabolism are the basis of many important pharmaceuticals. Accordingly, systems-level analysis of metabolism is likely to yield discoveries of medical significance.

A major barrier to understanding metabolism has been lack of appropriate tools. Our lab has developed methods for measuring a wide range of cellular metabolites using state-of-the-art mass spectrometry technology. We have used these tools to discover a novel metabolite involved in the pathogenesis of cancer (Dang et al., 2009). We have innovated approaches to quantitating metabolic fluxes by interpreting isotope-labeling data within a rigorous chemical-kinetic framework.