Linking angiogenesis and metabolism through FOXO transcription factors
NOTE CHANGE OF TIME: 11 AM
NOTE CHANGE OF TIME: 11 AM
ALL WELCOME
Michael Potente’s laboratory focuses on the regulation of blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) by metabolism. Angiogenesis and metabolism are tightly coupled as blood vessels supply nutrients and oxygen to energy-consuming tissues (e.g. brain, heart or skeletal muscle). A reduction in tissue oxygen tension or nutrient availability is a primary stimulus for angiogenesis, which prompts endothelial cells (ECs) to become motile, invasive and to form new vessel connections. His group studies how ECs sense such environmental signals and how they use this information to build vascular networks of organ-specific size, shape and density. They are also interested in the metabolism of ECs, aiming to understand how endothelial metabolic state controls vessel growth and function, and how deregulation contributes to disease. The forkhead box O (FOXO) family of transcription factors have been shown to control cell proliferation, metabolism, and stress resistance (Oellerich and Potente, 2012). FOXOs are key transcriptional effectors of the PI3K / AKT pathway that coordinates growth and metabolism in normal and cancer cells. PI3K signalling inhibits FOXO activity through AKT-mediated phosphorylation leading to the exclusion of FOXOs from the nucleus. Previous work from the Potente laboratory has shown that FOXOs suppress endothelial angiogenic behaviour in surrogate assays of angiogenesis (Potente et al., 2005). However, the specific cellular functions of FOXOs in angiogenesis in vivo remain unclear. Michael Potente uses a combination of genetic, biochemical and imaging technologies to define the role of individual FOXO family members for endothelial growth and metabolism in models of vascular development, homeostasis and disease.
Date:
12 November 2015, 11:00 (Thursday, 5th week, Michaelmas 2015)
Venue:
NDM Building, Headington OX3 7FZ
Venue Details:
TDI, Basement Seminar Room
Speaker:
Dr Michael Potente (Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research)
Organising department:
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Oxford Branch
Organisers:
Mary Muers (Oxford Ludwig Institute, NDM Experimental Medicine),
Alexandra Ward (University of Oxford, Oxford Ludwig Institute, NDM Experimental Medicine)
Organiser contact email address:
alexandra.ward@ludwig.ox.ac.uk
Hosts:
Dr Mads Gyrd Hansen (Ludwig Cancer Research),
Dr Sarah De Val (LICR, University of Oxford)
Part of:
Ludwig Institute Seminar Series
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Mary Muers
