Brandon Faubert

Research Statement

AI generated · Oct 17, 2026

Brandon Faubert's research centers on how cancer cells rewire their metabolism, with a particular emphasis on lactate metabolism in human lung tumors, work that used isotope tracing in patients to show that lactate is actively consumed rather than merely excreted. His most-cited first-author paper, metabolic reprogramming and cancer progression, frames this as a broad organizing principle across tumor types. Earlier work established AMPK as a negative regulator of the Warburg effect, suppressing tumor growth in vivo, and he extended this line by showing that loss of LKB1 drives metabolic reprogramming via HIF-1α. Beyond these, Faubert contributed as a middle author to studies of metabolic heterogeneity in human lung tumors and bioenergetic advantages in CD8 memory T cells, both of which inform his interest in how metabolic states vary across cell populations. His methodological output includes stable isotope tracing protocols for assessing tumor metabolism in vivo, alongside reviews on analyzing tumor metabolism and, more recently, approaches to stable isotope tracing and in vivo metabolomics in the cancer clinic. No software, datasets, patents, or grants are indexed beyond his publications. Across these works, the throughline is a shift from mechanistic studies of AMPK and LKB1 toward translating metabolic tracing into clinically applicable measurements.

Most Cited Works

Metabolic reprogramming and cancer progression

Brandon Faubert, Ashley Solmonson, Ralph J DeBerardinis

Science2020

2,700Citations

Posttranscriptional Control of T Cell Effector Function by Aerobic Glycolysis

Chih-Hao Chang, Jonathan D Curtis, Leonard B Maggi, Brandon Faubert, Alejandro V Villarino, David O'Sullivan, Stanley Ching-Cheng Huang, Gerritje J W van der Windt, Julianna Blagih, Jing Qiu, Jason D Weber, Edward J Pearce, Russell G Jones

Research Areas

Cancer, Hypoxia, and MetabolismMetabolism, Diabetes, and CancerCancer, Lipids, and MetabolismMetabolomics and Mass Spectrometry StudiCancer and biochemical research

Affiliations & Education

Education

2009–2015
McGill University(CA)
Doctorate · Physiology
2004–2009
Brock University(CA)
Bachelors of Science · Biology, Heath Science

Employment

2021–present· now
University of Chicago(US)
Assistant Professor · Medicine

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