Cancer-Anorexia Cachexia Syndrome (CACS) is a devastating and debilitating aspect of cancer that presents as extreme weight-loss due to severe muscle and adipose tissue wasting. This has a large impact on the morbidity and mortality of cancer patients and is a direct cause of over 20% of cancer-related deaths of which there is no cure or effective therapy. Adipose tissue wasting is a significant aspect of this disorder and mechanistically occurs due to the hyperactivation of the thermogenic adipose browning program. This is a normal physiological process that promotes the increase in energy expenditure through enhanced lipolysis. Though beneficial to individuals seeking weight-loss management, it has devastating consequences when dysregulated in cancer. We have discovered a series of BAT silencers that can inactivate the aberrant browning of white adipose tissue and preserve fat mass in mice. These BAT silencers can be leveraged towards cancer patients with cachexia to prevent adipose wasting and increase tolerance to anti-cancer therapies to reduce morbidity and improve quality of life.

Joeva Barrow, Ph.D., R.D. is a Hartwell Investigator and an Assistant Professor of Molecular Nutrition at Cornell University Division of Nutritional Sciences and has managed her independent lab since 2018. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Nutritional Sciences in 2006 before completing her Masters and combined Dietetic internship program at the University of Florida in 2008 where she was certified as a Registered Dietitian. While working at the frontlines in clinical dietetics providing medical nutrition therapy to patients with metabolic diseases, Dr. Barrow quickly discovered that despite the excellent standards of care from the medical community, our basic knowledge of metabolism and corresponding therapeutic capacity was quite limited. Dr. Barrow became fascinated with the concept that metabolic changes can dramatically alter genetic and epigenetic patterning and when dysregulated, leads to the development of disease. Fueled by that passion, Dr. Barrow pursued and obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Florida (2013) and then moved to Boston to complete her postdoctoral training at the Harvard Medical School/ Dana-Farber Cancer institute in Cell Metabolism and Cancer Biology (2018). Dr. Barrow has published in several high impact papers such as Molecular Cell, Molecular Metabolism, PNAS and others and her laboratory investigates molecular approaches to combat mitochondrial and metabolic disease.