Ryan D. Michalek
T-cell metabolism researcher who, as a postdoc with Jeffrey Rathmell, showed that effector CD4 T cells rely on glycolysis while regulatory T cells rely on lipid oxidation, which ties the pro-Treg effect of rapamycin to fatty acid oxidation; he later moved into metabolomics in industry
Senior Study Director, Metabolon, Inc., Durham · postdoc with Jeffrey Rathmell, Department of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology, Duke University
Metabolon, Inc. (Durham, North Carolina, USA) ↗ Lab lineagetrained under Jeffrey C. Rathmell →
Ryan Michalek was first author of the Atlas study showing that Th1, Th2 and Th17 cells carry high levels of the glucose transporter Glut1 and are strongly glycolytic, while inducible regulatory T cells carry little Glut1, have active AMPK and oxidise lipid (MIC2011). Blocking lipid oxidation selectively suppressed Treg generation and prevented the Treg increase produced by rapamycin, linking the pro-Treg effect of mTOR inhibition to fatty acid oxidation in these mouse cells.
Michalek did this work as a postdoctoral fellow in Jeffrey Rathmell's lab at Duke University. He then joined Metabolon, a metabolomics company in North Carolina, where he has co-authored metabolomic studies with academic groups; the Rathmell lab's alumni page lists him as a senior study director there.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | M | Cutting edge: distinct glycolytic and lipid oxidative metabolic programs are essential for effector and regulatory CD4+ T cell subsets MIC2011 First author: showed in mouse CD4 T cells that effector subsets are glycolytic while Treg depend on lipid oxidation, which rapamycin's pro-Treg effect requires. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Ryan D. Michalek.
- Jeffrey C. Rathmell Studies how nutrients and metabolic pathways control lymphocyte growth, differentiation and function; his lab helped show that effector and regulatory CD4 T cells rely on different fuel programmes, glycolysis versus lipid oxidation (in mouse cells).
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