Natalie Porat-Shliom, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Earl Stadtman Investigator
Head, Cell Biology and Imaging section
Thoracic and Gastrointestinal Malignancies Branch
National Cancer Institute, NIH
Seminar Information
Hepatocytes carry out a wide range of metabolic reactions, but these activities are not uniform across the liver lobule. Instead, they are organized into metabolic zones, in which periportal and pericentral hepatocytes follow distinct pathway programs shaped by gradients in oxygen, nutrients, hormones, and morphogen signaling. Although zonation is often described at the level of gene expression patterns, a major unresolved question is how hepatocytes execute these zone-specific programs at the subcellular level. In the talk, I will highlight how we combine quantitative spatial and ultrastructural imaging with proteomics, using mouse models and human liver samples, to connect organelle architecture and intracellular organization to metabolic specialization in the liver.
Natalie Porat-Shliom, M.Sc., Ph.D., is a Stadtman Investigator in the Thoracic and GI Malignancies Branch of the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute (NCI/NIH), where she leads the Cell Biology and Imaging Section. She is an Israeli‑American cell biologist and microscopist whose work focuses on applying advanced light and intravital microscopy to understand how mitochondrial organization and tissue architecture shape liver physiology and cancer.
Dr. Porat-Shliom received her B.Sc. in Biology, M.Sc. in Neurobiology, and Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Tel Aviv University. Her doctoral research focused on investigating endocytosis and Ras signaling using live‑cell imaging. She then completed postdoctoral training with Dr. Roberto Weigert at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, where she specialized in intravital microscopy to study mitochondrial dynamics in salivary glands, work that was recognized with an NIH Pathway to Independence (K99/R00) Award.
Since establishing her own group at NCI in 2018, Dr. Porat-Shliom has developed integrated molecular, biochemical, and imaging platforms to dissect liver zonation, nutrient sensing, and mitochondrial remodeling in normal tissue, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, and liver cancer, with the goal of understanding tumor heterogeneity. She is the chair of the NCI Women's Science Advisor Committee, serves
on the editorial board of Cancer Prevention Research, and is actively involved in mentoring and career-development programs for early-career scientists.