Our laboratory works with an enzyme called PI3 kinase (PI3K). This enzyme has a long history, having first been discovered in the 1980s due to its role in cancer. We now know that PI3K plays a number of important roles in individual cells and in the physiology of the whole organism. For instance when a cell is treated with a growth factor, PI3K...

Cellular energy is derived ultimately from the food we ingest. In order to be useful to the cell, food components such as proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates are eventually broken down into molecule-sized components. Through the process of "glycolysis," an individual cell converts carbohydrate molecules into a form of chemical energy, referred to...