Adrian Lita, Ph.D.
- Center for Cancer Research
- National Cancer Institute
- Building 37, Room 1136A
- Bethesda, MD 20814
- 240-760-7149
- adrian.lita@nih.gov
RESEARCH SUMMARY
Dr. Lita is an inorganic chemist in the Cancer Metabolism Research Program at the Neuro-Oncology Branch (NOB), who specializes in Raman spectroscopy. His goals are to develop methods to image lipids in organelles of live cells and tissue. He is combining Raman spectroscopy with confocal microscopy to study lipids in single cells present in the tissue microenvironment. He is also combining Raman spectroscopy with artificial intelligence to investigate gliomas and discover novel tumor biology specific to each tumor class.
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Areas of Expertise
Research
Dr. Lita develops and applies Raman spectroscopy-based methods to quantify metabolic changes in live cells and tissue. His research in the Neuro-Oncology Branch (NOB) Cancer Metabolism Program is focused on imaging metabolism in brain tumor cells and tissue for diagnostics and therapeutic purposes. Dr. Lita is currently establishing methods in the following areas of interest:
- Developing Raman imaging microscopy to monitor metabolic changes in organelles of live cells and tissue, in order to discover metabolic drug targets
- Combining Raman spectroscopy methods with machine learning for diagnostic purposes and to establish the limit between normal and infiltrating tumor cells
- Developing methods for spatial metabolic imaging in cells and tissues to investigate brain tumor heterogeneity
Publications
Probabilistic model checking of cancer metabolism
Advances in measuring cancer cell metabolism with subcellular resolution
Single-Organelle Optical Omics Platform for Cell Science and Biomarker Discovery
IDH1 mutations induce organelle defects via dysregulated phospholipids.
Toward Single-Organelle Lipidomics in Live Cells
Biography
Adrian Lita, Ph.D.
Dr. Lita obtained his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry in 2009 from Florida State University, studying synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials. He then served as a postdoctoral fellow in the same department and a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University until 2013, teaching chemistry and physical chemistry. Shortly after, he worked as a battery material engineer in the Toyota Research Institute of North America, developing next-generation batteries for electrical vehicles. In 2016, Dr. Lita joined the Neuro-Oncology Branch (NOB) as a research fellow to develop Raman imaging microscopy methods in cancer biology. In 2023, he was promoted to staff scientist. During his time at the NOB, Dr. Lita has developed a collection of methods based on Raman spectroscopy that monitor the metabolic changes in organelles of live cells and tissues. Using these techniques, he can establish the limit between normal and tumor infiltrating cells, as well as distinguish between different tumor grades.
News
Building a Toolkit to Examine How Cancer Cells Redirect Their Energy
November 28, 2022
A technique called Raman spectroscopy has revolutionized the way Dr. Mioara Larion’s lab understands tumor cell metabolism—and may ultimately help researchers design more effective cancer drugs. Read more >