So grateful to my colleagues for this honor!

My quote of the day As I reflect on my life, I recognize that our greatest achievements often arise from our most profound struggles. Embrace challenges and view failures as opportunities for growth. It is through these trials that we learn, adapt, and ultimately succeed. Marie Curie

Robert Winn (@aacicancer.bsky.social): “Having Tony [Letai] come in now as the actual NCI director gives us an opportunity to keep the process potentially within @theNCI, which is what I’m going to advocate for—and that we narrow the site visits." https://cancerletter.com/nci/20251031_1/

Excited to share our latest work out today in @cp-molcell.bsky.social, revealing a molecular link between succinate dehydrogenase and purine synthesis, connecting two fundamental metabolic pathways. Huge congratulations to the first author, Mushtaq Nengroo! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... !

Excited to share my postdoc work @olzmannlab.bsky.social! We found lipid droplets, the cell’s lipid storage depots, are subject to oxidative damage and are protected by FSP1. Loss of FSP1 triggers droplet peroxidation and cell death, revealing a new layer of lipid quality control! shorturl.at/B5XYD

Accumulation of succinate suppresses de novo purine synthesis through succinylation-mediated control of the mitochondrial folate cyclehttps:// www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1097276525008196 Congratulations @bensahralab.bsky.social !!

Proud to share a preprint of our paper on how bridge-like lipid transport protein VPS13C senses lysosomal membrane tension in anticipation of membrane lesions to initiate net ER-to-lysosome lipid transfer for efficient lysosomal repair www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Many thanks to all the trainees in our laboratory for their dedication and hard work. I represent their success. cmgm.vcu.edu/news/faculty...

🧠 The Lipid #Brain Atlas is out now! If you think #lipids are boring and membranes are all the same, prepare to be surprised. Led by @lucafusarbassini.bsky.social with Giovanni D'Angelo's lab, we mapped membrane lipids in the mouse brain at high resolution. www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Our efforts at the Massey in training the next generation of oncology leaders was highlighted in the ACCC-Oncology Issues: journals.accc-cancer.org/view/buildin...

Many observers view Anthony Letai’s appointment as part of a series of hopeful events that followed months of reductions in force, proposed reorganizations, and efforts to cut intramural and extramural spending. https://cancerletter.com/nci/20250925_1/

We want to congratulate our President, Dr. Tony Letai, on his appointment as Director of the NCI. This announcement marks an historic moment for cancer research. Dr. Letai has been a tireless advocate and visionary leader for functional precision medicine 🧵 www.nih.gov/news-events/...

thank you to all the NIH staff who stand by their duty and put in heroic efforts to get it done. I'll never forget it and will be eternally grateful.

SPECIAL REPORT: Anthony G. Letai to be named NCI director The Dana-Farber (@danafarber.bsky.social) and Harvard physician-scientist is an inspired choice, colleagues say https://cancerletter.com/nci/20250925_1/

A huge shoutout to all the dedicated grants management specialists at the NIH who are working around the clock to push grants out before the Sep 30 deadline. And also to the POs responding to frantic emails. Not an easy job under the best of circumstances and right now it's the pits. Thank you!

Very excited to share new work out today in @natchembio.nature.com on a new approach - FACES - for selectively imaging of phospholipids and other biomolecules at spatial resolutions down to individual membrane leaflets (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Some happy news to share: We received the NOA of our R01 today.

Excited to share our new review with @depaceraffa.bsky.social‬, @saikat2025.bsky.social‬, and Chad Williamson on the BLOC-1 and BORC complexes—key regulators of endolysosomal processes and linked to several genetic diseases. #NIH #Lysosomes #RareDiseases authors.elsevier.com/a/1lg4i8jWWJ...

Quite a week for #lipidtime: phenomenal study using bifunctional lipid probes to quantify intracellular lipid transport from @nadlerlab.bsky.social and colleagues is now out @nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The goal of a PhD is not to learn some facts or read a few papers or learn a bunch of techniques. The goal of a PhD is to learn independence, problem solving, how to finish things you start, resilience, & gain the ability to adapt & think creatively. Learning these things is hard.

Ray Blind (@blindlab.bsky.social), an associate professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center & @vumedicine.bsky.social, investigates how ligands bind & change the activity of two nuclear receptor 5A, or NR5A, family members called steroidogenic factor-1 & liver receptor homomlog-1, or LRH-1.

This was a labor of love requiring lots of teamwork over years, repeating in 3 locations! Thanks to all the lab over the years, giving their time generously to this team project, & our wonderful collaborators. The source of fat matters for anti-tumor immunity 🐄🐖🧈🌴🫒🥥 www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Microbial riboflavin inhibits ceramide synthase 3 to lower ceramide (d18:1/26:0) and delay colorectal cancer progression: Cell Metabolism www.cell.com/cell-metabol...

‪@cityofhope.bsky.social‬ launches AI tool to reduce burden of cancer care https://cancerletter.com/clinical-roundup/20250627_8b/

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness. A study in Nature Communications identifies a role for the protein apolipoprotein M in AMD that may present a therapeutic target. go.nature.com/40jhrAA #medsky 🧪

Yes, we need this.

💫NEW: Xu et al. show that S1P in HDL induces a calcium signaling cascade involving E-Syt1 that ultimately promotes the formation of contact sites between the endoplasmic reticulum and the plasma membrane, as well as HDL-derived #cholesterol transport. 👉https://rdcu.be/eqT5v bit.ly/3FWGgv8

For everyone interested in how membrane thickness differs between and within organelles, by @deglushk.bsky.social, S. Böhm & M. Beck: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Boris Pasche (@karmanoscancer.bsky.social‬): "Considering the growing number of survivors who may require only sporadic oncology office visits, there is a need for better collaboration between PCPs and treating oncologists." https://cancerletter.com/trials-and-tribulations/20250530_4/

You are not alone in this NIH grant game drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/05/21/y...

I think this was a little slow to emerge this year, compared with prior years (?) but the NIH R01equiv funding patterns by percentile for FY2024 are available now. Have fun with your favorite IC. report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/...

Hey gang, stop what you’re doing, new organelle just dropped!! Amazing the kind of stuff one finds inside cells by just looking at them (with magic like cryoET). What the heck are all these strange hemifused vesicles?

Very long chain fatty acids drive 1-deoxy-Sphingolipid toxicity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.13.653734v1

Thrilled to have our story on the regulation of lysosomal lipids out in @cp-cellmetabolism.bsky.social! The work was led by two outstanding grad students Jess Davidson and Raghav Jain probing mechanistic control of energy expenditure @hhmi.org @uwbiochem.bsky.social

Excited to collaborate with Caroline Alexander’s group and @lamminglab.bsky.social demonstrating the contribution of dietary lipids to skin lipids and their insulating properties. Proud of Raghav for leading this collaboration in my lab! @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Cancer centers are special, as are site visits in #NCI CCSG review: cancerletter.com/guest-editor...

Our team (hsph.harvard.edu/research/ube...) is excited to have contributed to the intranodal in vivo testing of the remarkable new compound, Fentomycin-1. Congrats to team Rodriguez et al. for the implications of this work in targeting ferroptosis in cancer. Check it out here!

Stromal lipid species dictate melanoma metastasis and tropism: Cancer Cell www.cell.com/cancer-cell/... great work from Amaya Viros @cruk-mi.bsky.social

Here's the background story on how I vibe coded a web extension for "Painless Preprint Posting": thenode.biologists.com/painless-pre...

What do cells undergoing #ferroptosis #celldeath release? Read all about it in our atlas on ferroptosis #secretomes out now in Cell Death and Differentiation #CDDpress Great collaboration with @cecad.bsky.social @frezzalab.bsky.social @kreuzaler.bsky.social @almutschulze.bsky.social rdcu.be/ejp9C

W. Kimryn Rathmell named CEO of The Ohio State James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (@osucccjames.bsky.social) https://cancerletter.com/in-brief/20250425_8a/

GDF15 links adipose tissue lipolysis with anxiety www.nature.com/articles/s42...

NCI summarizes changes to the CCSG NOFO. The reissued document is edited to cut out all language that mentions diversity, equity, and inclusion. Also, the document no longer mentions minority recruitment and gender. https://cancerletter.com/cancer-policy/20250418_7a/

Did you know? 99% of all new medications resulted from federally-funded university research through #NIH Learn more about #ResearchSavesLives: hub.jhu.edu/research-sav....

How City of Hope is using AI to improve surgical outcomes https://cancerletter.com/sponsored-article/20250404_5/

ATTENTION If anyone has any experience with appealing terminated grants (either the process or successful strategies 😀), please DM me. THANK YOU!

Finally the tides are starting to turn!! Cancer isn’t all about DNA mutations, nor even mRNA levels. We launched SyzOnc to map the proteins underlying deadly cancers that are not DNA-driven. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

I now have multiple sources that say at least one round of NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETINGS will now be announced in the Federal Register.

Bluetorial: My NIH grant got funded; The money is in the bank What happens behind the scenes with NIH fund transfers