Neuro-Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute (NCI/NIH)
Bethesda, United States
Dr. Larion is a trained biochemist who is interested in the metabolic needs of cancer cells and how they process nutrients in order to develop ways to target them and delay tumor growth. She utilizes a set of technologies, of which Raman Imaging Microscopy can quantify patterns in proteins, lipids and nucleic acids levels at subcellular levels. This is a highly significant endeavor for glioma tumors that are known to exhibit high heterogeneity.
Dr. Larion’s lab is focused on identifying metabolic vulnerabilities in IDH1 mutated gliomas for clinical application as well as on developing technologies that enable these discoveries. Dr. Larion’s laboratory has identified that lipid pathways are important for IDH1-mutant glioma growth and targeting specific enzymes from either fatty acid synthesis or sphingolipid pathway leads to specific cellular death in these cells. She is also interested in developing biomarkers to help image the disease progression and monitor the response to treatments.