Dependence On Glycolysis Sensitizes BRAF-mutated Melanomas For Increased Response To Targeted BRAF Inhibition.

Dysregulated metabolism can broadly affect therapy resistance by influencing compensatory signaling and expanding proliferation. Given many BRAF-mutated melanoma patients experience disease progression with targeted BRAF inhibitors, we hypothesized therapeutic response is related to tumor metabolic phenotype, and that altering tumor metabolism could change therapeutic outcome. We demonstrated the proliferative kinetics of BRAF-mutated melanoma cells treated with the BRAF inhibitor PLX4720 fall along a spectrum of sensitivity, providing a model system to study the interplay of metabolism and drug sensitivity.

Quantifying heterogeneity and dynamics of clonal fitness in response to perturbation.

The dynamics of heterogeneous clonal lineages within a cell population, in aggregate, shape both normal and pathological biological processes. Studies of clonality typically relate the fitness of clones to their relative abundance, thus requiring long-term experiments and limiting conclusions about the heterogeneity of clonal fitness in response to perturbation. We present, for the first time, a method that enables a dynamic, global picture of clonal fitness within a mammalian cell population.