Nathaniel Vacanti
Assistant Professor, Nutritional Sciences
Dr. Vacanti earned a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Connecticut, an MS in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego. His postdoctoral work was performed in the Department of Oncology and Pathology at Karolinska Institutet. He joined the faculty in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University as an assistant professor of Molecular Nutrition in the autumn of 2018.
Education
- 2008, BS, Chemical Engineering , University of Connecticut
- 2010, MS, Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 2015, Ph.D., Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego
- Postdoctoral Training, Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institute
Recent Research
Dr. Vacanti's research interests include combining high-throughput proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatic analyses with targeted metabolic investigative methods including stable-isotope tracing and respirometry measurements to identify pharmaceutical or dietary interventions to correct/exploit metabolic dysfunctions.
Ongoing projects include:
1.) Identifying targetable mechanisms regulating differential metabolism across breast cancer cell lines.
2.) Computationally predicting drug targets or nutrient interventions to exploit or correct metabolic dysfunctions.
3.) Mapping the proteomic response to nutrient availability in developing skeletal muscle cells.
Courses Taught
- NS 4010: Empirical Research
- Blum JE, Gheller BJ, Benvie A, Field M, Panizza E, Vacanti NM, Berry D, Thalacker-Mercer A. Pyruvate Kinase M2 supports muscle progenitor cell proliferation but is dispensable for skeletal muscle regeneration after injury. The Journal of Nutrition, In press.
- Jeong H, Yu Y, Johansson HJ, Schroeder FC, Lehtiö J, Vacanti NM. Correcting for naturally occurring mass isotopologue abundances in stable-isotope tracing experiments with PolyMID. Metabolites 11(5):310; 2021.
- Jeong H, Vacanti NM. Systemic vitamin intake impacting tissue proteomes. Nutrtion & Metabolism 17,73; 2020.
- Johansson HJ, Socciarelli F, Vacanti NM, Haugen MH, Zhu Y, Siavelis I, Fernandez-Woodbridge A, Aure MR, Sennblad B, Vesterlund M, Branca RM, Orre LM, Huss M, Fredlund E, Beraki E, Garred Ø , Boekel J, Sauer T, Zhao W, Nord S, Höglander EK, Jans DC, Brismar H, Haukaas TH, Bathen TF, Schlichting E, Naume B, Geisler J, Hofvind S, Engebråten O, Geitvik GA, Langerød A, Kåresen R, Mælandsmo GM, Sørlie T, Skejrven HK, Park D, Hartman-Johnsen OJ, Luders T, Borgen E, Kristensen VN, Russnes HG, Lingjærde OC, Mills GB, Sahlberg KK, Børresen-Dale AL, Lehtiö J. Breast cancer quantitative proteome and proteogenomic landscape. Nature Communications 10,1600; 2019.
- Vacanti NM. The Fundamentals of Constructing and Interpreting Heat Maps. Methods in Molecular Biology: Metabolic Signaling. 1862:279-291; 2018.
- Vacanti NM, Divakaruni AS, Green CR, Parker SJ, Henry RR, Ciaraldi TP, Murphy AN, Metallo CM. Regulation of Substrate Utilization by the Mitochondrial Pyruvate Carrier. Molecular Cell 56(3):425-435; 2014.
- Vacanti NM, Metallo CM, Exploring metabolic pathways that contribute to the stem cell phenotype. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – General Subjects. 2012.
- Vacanti NM, Cheng H, Hill PS, Guerreiro JD, Dang TT, Ma M, Watson S, Hwang NS, Langer RS. Anderson DG, Localized delivery of dexamethasone from electrospun fibers reduces the foreign body response. Biomacromolecules. 2012.
- Cheng H, Hill PS, Siegwart DJ, Vacanti NM, Lytton-Jean AK, Cho SW, Ye A, Langer R, Anderson DG. A novel family of biodegradable poly(ester amide) elastomers. Advanced Materials. 2011.
- Ditlev JA, Vacanti NM, Novak IL, Loew LM. An open model of actin dendritic nucleation. Biophysical Journal. 2009.