Abstract:
13C metabolic flux analysis (MFA) is the gold standard approach for quantifying rates of biochemical reactions in living cells and tissues. Over the past 15 years, my lab has established novel 13C MFA tools and approaches that enable us to probe entirely new aspects of metabolism previously inaccessible to measurement. I will discuss ongoing work where my lab has leveraged these approaches to engineer the metabolism of host cells for biomanufacturing applications and to investigate the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases using both cellular and in vivo model systems.
Bio:
Dr. Jamey D. Young is Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering at Vanderbilt University. He is also the Director of Graduate Studies in Chemical Engineering and Director of the Interdisciplinary Training in Engineering and Diabetes (ITED) T32 program. His lab uses stable isotope tracers, metabolomics measurements, and mathematical modeling to discover biological mechanisms that regulate metabolism. The ultimate goal of his research is to apply this knowledge to identify metabolic pathways that can be (i) targeted for treatment of metabolic disorders or (ii) engineered for more efficient and sustainable biomanufacturing. Dr. Young has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters describing his research.
Dr. Young received his B.S. degree from the University of Kentucky in 1999 and his Ph.D. from Purdue in 2005, both in Chemical Engineering. He was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT from 2005-08 and a Visiting Associate Professor (on sabbatical) at University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center in 2016. He was awarded the NSF CAREER Award in 2010 and the DOE Early Career Award in 2012, was named a Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow in 2017, received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department in 2018, and was elected to the AIMBE College of Fellows in 2023. His lab developed the first publicly available software package (‘INCA’) capable of isotopic steady-state and nonsteady-state 13C flux analysis. INCA has been licensed over 1000 times for academic use and by a dozen different biotechnology companies. Dr. Young was a co-founder of Metalytics, Inc. and is on the Editorial Board of Current Opinion in Biotechnology.
10:30am, Shaffer 3