The Cardenas Lab

Welcome to the Cardenas Lab!!!

The energetic balance in all living organisms is essential to sustain normal physiology, a fundamental process severely affected in many human diseases including cancer, aging, and several neurodegenerative diseases. The mechanisms underlying the maintenance of energy metabolism are complex and involve the dynamic interconnection of different signaling modules. Importantly, to achieve a homeostatic state, cells adjust and rewire their metabolic networks to keep a tight balance between energy production and expenditure in an ever-changing environment. An adaptable metabolic control system requires a central “rheostat program” that integrates inputs from the intra and extracellular environment to generate functional outputs that adjust cell behavior and energy production and consumption. Understanding the nature of this rheostat program is essential to delineate the etiology of diverse metabolic human diseases. Given the central role of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria in, bioenergetics, metabolism and proteostasis, in Cardenas lab, we deeply believe that the ER and mitochondria form the signaling platform (the rheostat) that monitor fluctuations in energy demand and execute homeostatic programs that determine the ability of cells to respond to stress in an adaptive or suicidal manner. Thus, the long-term goals of Cardenas lab are; 1) unveil the signals that fine-tune the ER-mitochondrial communication, 2) determine the dynamic nature of the ER-mitochondrial coupling on complex physiological processes such as migration and proliferation and 3) investigate the impact of ER-mitochondrial dynamics on adjusting energy, metabolic and structural homeostasis during migration, proliferation and senescence.