Maximilian Wranik

Targeting tumor-associated metabolic pathways remains a major challenge in cancer therapy due to the complexity and heterogeneity of metabolic adaptations. Tumor cells often hijack essential metabolic enzymes to support rapid growth and survival. Because these enzymes also perform vital functions in healthy tissues, conventional inhibition strategies targeting static active sites frequently lack selectivity and cause collateral damage.
My research focuses on understanding how metabolic rewiring—particularly through nutrient sensing and glucose utilization—drives tumor progression at the molecular level. To address this, I combine time-resolved structural biology with AI-driven data processing and virtual drug screening to capture and leverage transient, metastable intermediate states of cancer cell–specific protein dynamics. These dynamic conformations provide critical insights into the mechanisms of cancer-driven metabolic reprogramming and open new opportunities to assess the druggability of cancer cell–specific behaviors. This approach enables next-generation precision oncology by targeting the pathological functions of key metabolic enzymes, with the potential to improve selectivity and patient outcomes.

Maximilian Wranik is a Life Science Alliance Bridging Excellence Fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine and holds a courtesy affiliation with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in France. He studied pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and as an academic visitor at the University of Oxford before completing his PhD studies at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. His research integrates time-resolved structural biology with virtual drug screening to uncover how metabolic rewiring drives cancer progression, and how cancer cell–specific protein dynamics can be leveraged as targets to develop new concepts for precision oncology.