Sunil Sudarshan
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Biochemistry
Kidney cancer, in the form of renal cell carcinoma, ranks among the ten most common cancers in both men and women. Tumors confined to the kidney are usually treatable, but advanced disease still has poor outcomes despite several approved drugs, so new treatment strategies are needed.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Medicine & Clinical Research
Genetics
- Topics
renal cell carcinoma
kidney cancer
oncometabolite
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Determine the molecular mechanism by which the oncometabolite L-2-hydroxyglutarate promotes the mRNA mark N6-methyladenosine (m6A) in renal cell carcinoma, and establish what this RNA hypermethylation does to gene expression.
- Dissect how L-2HG remodels tumor metabolism, focusing on glucose utilization and how it supports the synthesis of new cellular building blocks.
- Assess whether L-2HG-driven metabolic remodeling promotes tumor growth in kidney cancer models and whether it creates metabolic vulnerabilities that could be targeted pharmacologically.
- Apply ribosome profiling, which identifies which mRNAs are actively being translated, in lab-generated kidney cancer models to link L-2HG-induced RNA methylation to changes in protein output.
More about the research
This work follows a clue from tumor chemistry: many of these cancers accumulate large amounts of a small molecule called L-2-hydroxyglutarate (L-2HG), an "oncometabolite" — a metabolic byproduct that builds up abnormally in cancer cells and helps drive their behavior. The team has found that L-2HG is a potent driver of tumor growth and now asks how it works.
Why it matters
Because drugs aimed at RNA modification and at cancer metabolism are now entering clinical testing, mapping how L-2HG rewires kidney tumors could point to treatment targets for the sizable share of renal cell carcinoma patients whose tumors carry high levels of this metabolite, especially those with advanced disease and few effective options.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Lili Wang
Columbia University, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine how the MGA/MYC/NME1 pathway, a growth program switched on when the gene Mga is silenced, changes tumor-cell properties during the CLL-to-Richter's transformation, using the lab's mouse RT model.
Erinn Rankin
Stanford University, CA·Pharmacology
Test whether FTO, an enzyme that removes m6A chemical tags from RNA, drives glutamine rewiring in VHL-deficient kidney cancer by raising levels of SLC1A5, the protein that imports glutamine into cells.
Joshua T Mendell
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Biochemistry
Determine how altering dihydrouridine synthase (DUS) activity changes D modifications on tRNAs, overall tRNA metabolism and the PTMD mRNA-decay pathway in human and mouse ccRCC cells.
The school
University of Alabama at Birmingham: 45 labs on PI Pages, $866M a year on research, 166 research doctorates a year.
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