Getting to Know Liron Bar-Peled, PhD

Liron Bar-Peled, PhD, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, will be our visiting speaker on September 26, 2024.  Liron received his PhD at MIT in the David Sabatini lab, studying amino acid sensing. He then conducted his postdoctoral research with Benjamin Cravatt at the Scripps Research Institute, where he mapped druggable reactive cysteine residues of proteins using large scale chemical proteomics, before starting his own lab in 2019.

The Bar-Peled lab studies cancer metabolism, especially related to reactive oxygen species, from a chemical proteomics perspective.  Among other discoveries, his lab has recently identified NADH 'reductive stress’ as a metabolic vulnerability in lung cancer.  They continue to develop cutting-edge techniques for uncovering cancer vulnerabilities and druggabilities using large-scale genomic screening and chemical proteomics.  Liron has received numerous awards including the Weintraub Award, Pew Scholar, and Krantz Quantum Award.

Following MetNet tradition, we asked Liron some scientific and nonscientific questions!

Describe the Bar Peled lab environment

We really emphasize working together as a team to solve hard biomedical problems. Science is hard. It's more fun and productive to work together.

What is your perfect day relaxing outside of work?

Spending the day baking. I very much enjoy working with my hands.

What would you do with more free time?

Read.

What profession do you think you would have chosen if you weren’t a scientist?

A baker.

Looking back on your path so far, what advice would you give to trainees?

It might be unpopular to say this, but I think it is true - working hard is one of the most important characteristics in science. I just don’t see any way around this.  I think perhaps equally as important is learning how to collaborate, mentor others, and build a team.