Warren P. Voth, PhD

I am a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Utah Department of Pathology, in the Division of Microbiology and Immunology, and am part of the research group headed by Ryan M. O’Connell, PhD, Professor of Pathology. My background and training are in genetics and molecular biology. My postdoctoral training and extensive subsequent research in the lab of David J. Stillman was concerned with gene expression during the cell cycle, with a focus on the pathways and dynamics of transcriptional regulation and chromatin reorganization during and after crossing the mitotic boundary to form new cells in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

My current work in the O’Connell group is centered on molecular approaches to understanding metabolic phenomena in tumor immunity. Recent discoveries in this field have identified a number of factors and pathways indicating the involvement of a wide range of effects from chromatin modification to metabolite signaling in tumors. One focus is on the interplay between the induction of innate immune cells’ inflammatory metabolic responses and cancer cell metabolism, where we are seeking to understand the discrete regulatory functions of these metabolic changes on transcriptional programs in the tumor microenvironment. This points to lines of inquiry within my particular interests, such as the investigation of tumor cell gene expression responses to immune signaling and subsequent reciprocal alteration of immune cell regulatory programs with an emphasis on chromatin level effects in each cell type. Thus, exploiting my background in gene regulation to explore these pathways and networks in tumor immunity will allow for strong contributions to understanding mechanisms and discovering critical clinical implications.