Office: Foran Hall Room 166
Lab: Foran Hall Room 169 and 181
Phone: 848-932-6331
Email: tracy.anthony@rutgers.edu
Education
- B.S., Virginia Tech University; Human Nutrition and Foods
- M.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Nutritional Sciences
- Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Nutritional Sciences
- Post-doc, Penn State College of Medicine at Hershey, Cellular and Molecular Physiology
Research Interests
The mission of The Anthony Lab is to identify new ways to prevent and treat serious diseases and promote health span.
Our Big Question: How does the body sense nutrients and turn that information into decisions about growth, stress resistance, and survival?
To answer this question, we study metabolism and proteostasis in organ systems throughout the body. We are especially interested in sensing and signaling pathways that are responsive to nutrient scarcity and environmental stress. We also are interested in circadian and biological rhythms and the crosstalk between diet and physical activity.
We use a mix of mouse models, cell culture, omics (transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics), metabolic phenotyping, and computational modeling. We study nutrition at the molecular level all the way to the whole organism. Lab projects give trainees a strong conceptual grounding in how tissues and organs survive and adapt to stress.
Current projects in the laboratory fall into the following areas:
Amino Acid Sensing and Signaling
A core theme of the lab is understanding how cells detect amino acid insufficiency through the kinase GCN2 and activation of the integrated stress response (ISR). The ISR is an evolutionarily conserved signaling network that selectively alters protein synthesis and gene expression to restore balance. Understanding how the ISR works to support cellular protection and adaptation during stress is of great importance to healthy aging and developing new and improved treatments for disease.
Drug-Nutrient Interactions
A major foci in the lab explores how clinically relevant drugs intersect with nutrient pathways. A key example is asparaginase, a bacterial enzyme used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer. These studies aim to increase the safety and efficacy of asparaginase and to develop new and improved uses for asparaginase to treat disease.
Dietary Amino Acid Restriction and Health Span
The lab is studying dietary amino acid restriction as an intervention that improves metabolic health and may extend health span. Projects here combine nutrition interventions with animal physiology, isotope labeling, omics, data science, and big-picture questions about metabolism effects at the ribosome.
Nutrient Stress in Cancer
The Anthony Lab collaborates closely with cancer biologists at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Indiana University School of Medicine to understand how tumors exploit nutrient stress pathways and how nutrient stress pathways affect cancer treatment strategies.
Metabolism in Motion
The Anthony Lab is interested in understanding how nutrient scarcity affects circadian rhythms in metabolism. We are also interested in the interface of diet/nutrition and exercise to improve performance and promote recovery and resilience.
For more information, please visit the lab webpage: https://theanthonylab.com