Javier Garcia Bermudez, Ph.D. Assistant Professor School Medical School Department Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern | Pediatrics Graduate Programs Cancer Biology Biography Javier Garcia-Bermudez received his bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain. He then went on to obtain his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the same university, studying the role of mitochondrial respiration in cancer progression and stem cell differentiation. In 2016, Dr. Garcia-Bermudez joined Dr. Kivanc Birsoy's laboratory at Rockefeller University as a European Molecular Biology Organization Long-Term Fellow and as a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Special Fellow. His postdoctoral work uncovered critical metabolic dependencies of cancers exposed to low oxygen and lipid peroxidation stress. Dr. Garcia-Bermudez joined the faculty of Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern in December 2021. He is a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar and has received a transition award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI-NIH) to support his studies on metabolic liabilities of tumors. The Garcia-Bermudez laboratory aims to understand the role of metabolic adaptive mechanisms in cancer progression. They use functional genetic screens to identify uncharacterized metabolic pathways that counteract metabolic stress. Their goal is to dissect the molecular underpinnings of these pathways and target them in cancer models as potential therapies. Education Graduate School Universidad Complutense Madrid (2015), Molecular Biology Research Interest Cancer Metabolism Hypoxia Lipid Metabolism Oxidative Stress Publications Featured Publications Adaptive stimulation of macropinocytosis overcomes aspartate limitation in cancer cells under hypoxia Garcia-Bermudez J, Prasad S, Baudrier L, Badgley MA, Liu Y, La K, Soula M, Williams RT, Yamaguchi N, Hwang RF, Taylor LJ, Stanchina ES, Rostandy B, Alwaseem H, Molina H, Bar-Sagi B, Birsoy K. bioRxiv 2021 Metabolic determinants of cancer cell sensitivity to canonical ferroptosis inducers. Soula M, Weber RA, Zilka O, Alwaseem H, La K, Yen F, Molina H, Garcia-Bermudez J, Pratt DA, Birsoy K, Nat Chem Biol 2020 12 16 12 1351-1360 Squalene accumulation in cholesterol auxotrophic lymphomas prevents oxidative cell death. Garcia-Bermudez J, Baudrier L, Bayraktar EC, Shen Y, La K, Guarecuco R, Yucel B, Fiore D, Tavora B, Freinkman E, Chan SH, Lewis C, Min W, Inghirami G, Sabatini DM, Birsoy K, Nature 2019 03 567 7746 118-122 Aspartate is a limiting metabolite for cancer cell proliferation under hypoxia and in tumours. Garcia-Bermudez J, Baudrier L, La K, Zhu XG, Fidelin J, Sviderskiy VO, Papagiannakopoulos T, Molina H, Snuderl M, Lewis CA, Possemato RL, Birsoy K, Nat Cell Biol 2018 07 20 7 775-781 Results 1-4 of 4 1 Honors & Awards CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research (2021-2024) NIH K99/R00: Pathway to Transition Award (2020-2024) Professional Associations/Affiliations Childrens Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (2021) Pediatrics (2021)
