The Finley Lab investigates how cellular metabolic pathways regulate cell fate decisions in stem cells and cancer cells. We combine genetic and metabolomic approaches to investigate cell-type specific growth requirements and elucidate how flux through central metabolic pathways regulates key cellular activities, including self-renewal and differentiation. In particular, we are interested in understanding how changes in metabolite availability shape the chromatin landscape to influence gene expression programs that control cell survival, growth and differentiation. Our work aims to answer fundamental questions about how cells regulate the commitment to differentiation and how failure to execute terminal differentiation can underlie diseases such as cancer.
Biography
Lydia Finley received her BS summa cum laude from Yale University and completed her PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Marcia Haigis at Harvard Medical School. As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Craig Thompson at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Finley identified metabolites that contribute to the regulation of embryonic stem cell self-renewal. The Finley lab opened in the Sloan Kettering Institute in 2017 and Dr. Finley was promoted to Associate Member in 2022. Dr. Finley additionally serves on the editorial boards of eLife and Cancer & Metabolism.
Distinctions:
New York Stem Cell Foundation – Robertson Investigator
Louise and Allston Boyer Young Investigator Award for Basic Research
Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research
Searle Scholar
Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Award of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
Selected Publications:
A non-canonical tricarboxylic acid cycle underlies cellular identity. Arnold PK, Jackson BT, Paras KI, Brunner JS, Hart ML, Newsom OJ, Alibeckoff SP, Endress J, Drill E, Sullivan LB, Finley LWS. Nature. 2022 Mar;603(7901):477-481. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04475-w. Epub 2022 Mar 9. PMID: 35264789; PMCID: PMC8934290.
