Suzy Torti

Our laboratory is interested in relationships between iron metabolism and tumor growth. This interest generates three current projects:

• Natural and synthetic cancer chemopreventives and their relationship to iron chelation.
• Cancer angiogenesis and iron metabolism.  Angiogenesis plays a key role in tumor growth, since the appropriate delivery of nutrients through blood vessels is important to tumor growth and oxygenation. We have discovered that ferritin, a protein best known for its iron storage and detoxification properties, has an additional, less well-studied property: it regulates processes in angiogenesis by interacting with an anti-angiogenic protein, HKa. We are currently investigating the implications and mechanism of this effect. Over the long term, these studies may suggest novel targets for modulating angiogenesis in vivo.
• A novel bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) antagonist in cancer. We have identified a BMP antagonist protein that is down-regulated in several types of cancer, including kidney cancer and breast cancer. Current studies are exploring the hypothesis that this protein is a new tumor suppressor.

In addition to these projects, we have recently embarked on an exciting new venture with the Nanotechnology Center at Wake Forest to study novel nanoparticles as anti-tumor agents.

Contact Info and Recent publications