My laboratory focuses on the development of metabolic therapies for the treatment of cancer (with an emphasis on amino acid metabolism), and I’m also Director of the Metabolomics Core Facility. Over the last three years, I’ve helped collaborators raise more than $100M to support their research; I’ve successfully administered small and large-scale projects and have co-authored 61 peer-reviewed publications. My passion for high-quality technical development and improving the diagnosis and treatment of cancer will fuel the successful completion of the proposed project. In the metabolomics field, I co-wrote and was Co-Investigator on a successfully completed $4.5M CPRIT Core Facility Award, managed staff and the budget, and oversaw development of targeted and non-targeted services using current equipment and protocols that we have optimized thoroughly. We’ve developed novel mass spectrometry-based methods for: 1) increasing the accuracy of glutamine and glutamate measurements by minimizing in-source conversion to pyroglutamate; 2) normalizing metabolomic data based on the DNA content of cell- and tissue-based samples; 3) measuring amino acids from as little as 2 µL of mouse plasma or whole blood; 4) detection of over 2,000 annotated metabolites and lipids per biological sample (including just 2 mg of tissue); 5) stable isotope tracer analyses in vitro and in vivo including methods for measuring pentose phosphate pathway activity, forward and reverse glycolysis, and forward and reverse TCA cycling; 6) determining the extent and position of 13 C incorporation into specific amino acids; and 7) diagnosing and correcting batch effects in metabolomic data. In summary, the current proposal will benefit from my experience in pharmacology, metabolomics and metabolism, management of scientific research, and ability to find solutions to the most daunting challenges.