Stefano Tiziani

Dr. Stefano Tiziani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, with additional appointments at the Dell Medical School (Departments of Oncology and Pediatrics) and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Food Science & Nutrition, The Ohio State University (2006)
• Laurea in Chemistry, University of Trieste, Italy
• Postdoctoral Fellow in Cancer Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK (2006-2009)
• Postdoctoral Fellow in Cancer Sciences, Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute (2009-2012)

Dr. Tiziani's research laboratory focuses on translational chemical biology using metabolomics-based systems biology for metabolic biomarker discovery. His team combines high-throughput screening measurements, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, and metabolic flux analysis to gain a better bio-mechanistic understanding of drug-nutrient interactions in cancer and other conditions. His work aims to identify cancer vulnerabilities and accelerate the development of novel synergistic combinatorial treatments for precise control of complex biological systems.

His recent publications demonstrate expertise across analytical chemistry, cancer biology, and metabolic regulation fields, with particular focus on chiral metabolomics techniques, metabolite annotation tools, protein tyrosine phosphatase function in metabolic disorders, amino acid depletion therapies for cancer, and synergistic drug combinations for leukemia treatment.

Scientific Awards:

• College Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award, University of Texas at Austin (2018)

Dr. Tiziani collaborates extensively with biologists and clinical researchers to profile human cell lines and biospecimens, identifying metabolic biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis in human diseases. His laboratory has made significant contributions to developing amino acid depletion therapies for various malignancies by capitalizing on metabolomics and isotope tracer metabolic flux technologies.

His research demonstrates that cancer subtypes are susceptible to amino acids deprivation and complex I inhibition, which can be achieved through targeted amino acid depletion therapy or by targeting critical energy metabolic nodes within the tumor microenvironment.