Srirupa Roy

Research project: Autophagy facilitates glucose uptake and glycolysis during metabolic stress via regulating Glut1 trafficking Project description: Autophagy is traditionally viewed as an intracellular catabolic pathway that recycles core metabolites during starvation or stress to promote cell survival. Our results illuminate a key interconnection between the autophagy and endosomal pathways dictating efficient glucose uptake from the extracellular milieu. Metabolomic studies using NMR spectroscopy showed autophagy facilitates glycolysis and glucose uptake during increased metabolic demand including oncogenic Ras transformation, hypoxia. Confocal microscopy, flow cytometry and live cell imaging studies showed that autophagy promotes Glut1 (glucose transporter) trafficking to the cell membrane surface. Using pulldown assays and immunofluorescence microscopy rigorously dissected the mechanism of regulation of Glut1 trafficking via autophagy. This is the first evidence that apart from bulk degradation of intracellular constituents, autophagy can control cellular metabolism via regulating extracellular nutrient uptake.

Mentor: Jay Debnath Key research project: Autophagy promotes survival of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) and non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) via significant metabolic adaptations: