Associate Professor
Mayo Clinic
Taro Hitosugi, PhD, Associate Professor, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Department of Oncology, Division of Oncology Research.
Dr. Taro Hitosugi is a basic and translational scientist with expertise on tumor metabolism. Dr. Hitosugi employs proteomics- and metabolic flux/metabolomics approaches to study molecular mechanisms of the interplay of dysregulated signaling pathways and metabolic pathways in cancer. Using this technique, he has contributed to the discovery of the unknown links between post-translational modification (PTM) and cell metabolism and recently revealed non-canonical functions of metabolic enzymes and metabolites in cancer. In particular, his lab has identified a non-canonical activity of carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) 1A as a first mammalian mitochondrial lysine succinyltransferase that succinylates proteins at lysine residues using TCA cycle metabolite succinyl-CoA as a co-substrate. This finding is a significant breakthrough in regulation of a novel PTM, lysine succinylation in cells. Currently, his lab is developing a first-in-class small molecule inhibitor against lysine succinyltransferase activity of CPT1A, which enhances the efficacy of anti-BCMA CART therapy in myeloma mice. In translational side of his research, his lab is developing myeloma PDX models with multiple molecular sub-types including p17Del and t(4;14) translocation.