Mark Hiroshi Sugita Troftgruben

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Mark is a rising senior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he conducts organic synthesis research in Dr. Scott Eagon’s medicinal chemistry lab. In the “E-Lab,” he attempts to synthesize small molecule benzoxazole inhibitors of casein kinase 2 (CK2), an understudied kinase that phosphorylates over 700 different residues and is known to be upregulated in numerous types of cancers. This summer at UCLA, Mark works for Dr. Peter Clark in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology where his focus is on expressing Hexokinase 2 (HK2) and both identifying and characterizing potential small molecule inhibitors of it. Elevated glucose consumption via aerobic glycolysis—known as the Warburg Effect—is fundamental to nearly all cancers and hexokinase catalyzes the first rate-limiting step of glycolysis. Given this and the fact that HK1 and HK2 provide redundant protection from loss of function for either of these isoforms of hexokinase, the Clark Lab aims to selectively inhibit HK1- HK2+ cancers (40 percent of hepatocellular carcinoma cases) by identifying small molecule inhibitors of HK2. Using enzymatic and thermal shift curve assays, Mark looks to better understand the mechanisms behind which small molecules identified from high-throughput screening inhibit HK2. Mark would like to thank Dr. Clark and his mentor, Stefani Perez, as well as Ph.D. candidate K.M. Ryan and undergraduate Rachel Jiang for their wonderful mentorship and support. He would also like to thank UCLA and the Amgen Foundation for the opportunity to explore a different field of research this summer.

Mark is a rising senior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he conducts organic synthesis research in Dr. Scott Eagon’s medicinal chemistry lab. In the “E-Lab,” he attempts to synthesize small molecule benzoxazole inhibitors of casein kinase 2 (CK2), an understudied kinase that phosphorylates over 700 different residues and is known to be upregulated in numerous types of cancers.

This summer at UCLA, Mark works for Dr. Peter Clark in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology where his focus is on expressing Hexokinase 2 (HK2) and both identifying and characterizing potential small molecule inhibitors of it. Elevated glucose consumption via aerobic glycolysis—known as the Warburg Effect—is fundamental to nearly all cancers and hexokinase catalyzes the first rate-limiting step of glycolysis. Given this and the fact that HK1 and HK2 provide redundant protection from loss of function for either of these isoforms of hexokinase, the Clark Lab aims to selectively inhibit HK1– HK2+ cancers (40 percent of hepatocellular carcinoma cases) by identifying small molecule inhibitors of HK2. Using enzymatic and thermal shift curve assays, Mark looks to better understand the mechanisms behind which small molecules identified from high-throughput screening inhibit HK2.

Mark would like to thank Dr. Clark and his mentor, Stefani Perez, as well as Ph.D. candidate K.M. Ryan and undergraduate Rachel Jiang for their wonderful mentorship and support. He would also like to thank UCLA and the Amgen Foundation for the opportunity to explore a different field of research this summer.