Priolo Lab
Overview
Dr. Priolo leads a translational research program focused on understanding how dysregulated cellular metabolism drives tumorigenesis in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC), Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), and related cancers. With training in Clinical and Molecular Oncology and more than 15 years of experience in cancer metabolism research, her laboratory investigates how genetic alterations - particularly loss of TSC1/TSC2 signaling - reshape cellular metabolism to promote abnormal cell growth and disease progression.
The long-term goal of the program is to identify metabolic vulnerabilities that can be leveraged to develop innovative therapeutic and diagnostic strategies for patients with rare diseases and cancers. By integrating molecular biology, metabolism, and translational research, the laboratory seeks to bridge fundamental discovery and clinical application to advance precision medicine approaches for rare tumors.
She is an Associate Member of the Broad Institute, serves on The LAM Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board, and is an active member of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Thoracic Oncology Assembly.
Research Projects
The Priolo Laboratory integrates multi-omics approaches, stable isotope metabolic tracing, and advanced metabolic imaging to identify clinically actionable pathways in mTOR-driven tumors.
A major focus is understanding how alterations in lipid homeostasis, mitochondrial function, glycan modifications, and long noncoding RNAs contribute to disease pathogenesis and therapeutic response in TSC and LAM. The laboratory investigates the metabolic consequences of TSC2 loss in lung and kidney tumors, identifying key alterations in acetate and lipid metabolism that reveal potential druggable vulnerabilities and imaging biomarkers. Building on these findings and multidisciplinary collaborations, Dr. Priolo led the first [11C]acetate PET imaging trial in women with sporadic LAM or TSC-LAM and renal masses, advancing metabolic imaging as a tool for disease monitoring and clinical trial readiness.
A second major research program focuses on chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (ChRCC), a rare kidney cancer that can occur sporadically or in association with TSC. Through collaborative metabolomics studies, the laboratory uncovered defects in glutathione homeostasis that drive metabolic rewiring to sustain tumor survival under oxidative stress. These findings reveal sensitivity to ferroptosis-inducing therapies and establish a framework for developing therapeutic combinations for a disease with no effective targeted treatments.