This weeks recommended paper is by Samuel Witus and Michael Rapé +team who show that purine nucleotides stabilise the PPAT–NUDT5 complex to provide feedback control of purine biosynthesis, while thiopurines exploit the same interface with greater potency: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This weeks recommended paper is by Samuel Witus and Michael Rapé +team who show that purine nucleotides stabilise the PPAT–NUDT5 complex to provide feedback control of purine biosynthesis, while thiopurines exploit the same interface with greater potency: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This week's recommended read is by Madeleine Hart and Lucas Sullivan and team who show that SDH inhibition triggers a rebound in aspartate, yet pyrimidine synthesis and proliferation remain blocked because accumulated succinate inhibits ATCase. doi.org/10.1038/s422...

This week my recommended read is by Ivan Montes, Hesham Sadek and team who show that mitochondria interact with nuclear pores via VDAC1–RANBP2. This contact fuels nuclear energetics, regulates gene expression, and is essential for cell differentiation. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This week's paper is from Yuheng Liao and Hui Yang and team: aspartate restriction triggers mtDNA stress and cytosolic mtDNA release, amplifying type I IFN responses via a ZBP1-driven loop to boost the efficacy of STING agonists, chemo, and radiotherapy. www.jci.org/articles/vie...

This week's paper is from Apoorva Uboveja, Katherine Aird and team who show that αKG helps HR-proficient cancer cells repair DNA damage through a carnitine-dependent histone acetylation pathway. Great work! doi.org/10.1038/s415...

This week's recommended read is by Lennart Hoffmann, Tanja Maritzen and team who show that aldolase links metabolism to cell adhesion, with FBP acting as a signal to boost Rac1 activity to reorganize actin, enhance adhesion, and drive cell protrusion. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This week's recommended cancer metabolism paper is by Fenfen Ji and Chi Chun Wong and team who show that BCAA metabolism regulates colorectal cancer dissemination through UMP-mediated stabilisation of vimentin. Targeting BCAA metabolism can stop CRC mets. doi.org/10.1016/j.cm...

This week's paper is by Anna Bång-Rudenstam and Mattias Belting and team who show a chondroitin sulfate–rich glycocalyx in glioblastoma blocks lipid uptake, protects from ferroptosis, and drives survival. Targeting this => lipid peroxidation & cell death. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This week my recommended cancer metabolism paper is by Savvas Kourtis, Sara Sdelci and team who show that metabolic enzyme "moonlighting" on chromatin is widespread across various tissues and metabolic pathways in a tissue-specific manner. Great work! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This week's recommended paper is by Naiqi Wang and Di Yu and team who show that dietary PUFAs and MUFAs influence T cell lipid composition and resistance to ferroptosis, to regulate immune responses, with implications for vaccines and immunotherapies www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This week's paper is by Daqi Li and Xiuxing Wang and team who show that tumour associated macrophages supply glioblastoma stem cells with lactate to promote their proliferation and induce KU70 lactylation to block cGAS-STING signalling and remodel the TME. Great work! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This week my recommended cancer metabolism paper is by Azusa Terasaki and Derick Okwan-Duodo and team who report that mitochondrial transfer from immune cells to cancer cells facilitates lymph node metastasis via the cGAS/STING immune evasion pathway. doi.org/10.1016/j.cm...

Today, on #WorldCancerDay, we’re taking you behind the scenes at Queen Mary's Barts Cancer Institute and introducing you to the people who are making progress possible. Follow us to stay up to date with new developments. 🧪 #UnitedByUnique #MedSky #OncoSky @qmul.bsky.social @cancerresearchuk.org

This week's top paper is by Kimberley Huggler and Jason Cantor and team who show that hexokinase (HK) 2-dependence of cancer cells in HPLM is due to the subcellular distribution of HK1, with cytosolic HK supporting the Warburg effect. Great work! www.nature.com/articles/s42...

This week's recommended read is by Jian Gu and LIng Lu and team who show that tumour-derived ammonia drives Treg-specific enrichment. Tregs detoxify ammonia via the urea cycle and spermine synthesis, boosting Tregs to drive resistance. Great work! doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

This week's recommended read is by Amaia Zabala-Letona, Arkaitz Carracedo and team who have shown that polyamines (spermidine & spermine) regulate alternative splicing by binding to splicing factors to prevent the action of upstream kinases. Great work! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy New Year All! My first recommended read for 2026 is by Yaqui Wang, Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti and team who identify a new lytic cell death pathway, mitoxyperilysis, triggered by the synergy of innate immune activation and metabolic stress. Great work! doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

So this week's recommended paper is not about cancer metabolism - but a study reporting the effects of space travel on human biology is always a great read! Well done to Jessica Pham, Catrina Jamieson and team! doi.org/10.1016/j.st...

This weeks highly recommended read is by Yaqiu Wang, Thirumala-Devi Kannaganti and colleagues who describe mitoxyperilysis - a distinct form of lytic cell death induced by innate immune signaling and metabolic disruption. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

This week's paper is by Yajing Gao, Peter Tontonoz and team who show that the lipid transporter Aster-A limits excess accumulation of cholesterol in the membrane of Th17 cells dampening TCR-signalling to guard against excessive Th17-cell responses. www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

This week's recommended read is by Cai-Yang Wu and Dong-Ming Kuang and team who show that despite suppressing primary tumour growth, glucose deprivation promotes lung metastasis by depleting natural killer cells via lung macrophages. Read more at: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

This week's recommended metabolism read is by Qiaocho Li, Thorsten Hoppe and team who show that leucine suppresses degradation of outer mitochondrial membrane proteins to enhance respiration - defects in leucine catabolism promote lung cancer resistance. www.nature.com/articles/s41556-025-01799-3

My fav paper this week is by Akiko Ogawa and Fan-Yan Wei and team who report that toxic RNA catabolites are detoxified by the sequential action of ADK and ADAL - disruption of this pathway leads to AMPK inhibition and metabolic dysfunction. Great work! doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

The 2025 British Society for Haematology Guideline for the treatment of CLL is out. A big thank you to everyone involved - particularly Renata and Piers! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This weeks paper is by Joey Li and Timothy O'Sullivan and team who show that while activated murine NK cells can perform de novo serine synthesis, human NKs can't - highlighting a species-specific sensitivity to environmental serine availability. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

This week my paper of choice is by Faith Kaluba and Evan Lien and team who show that beta-hydroxybutyrate can be used by cancer cells to generate cytosolic acetyl-CoA via a non-canonical route that avoids oxidation in the mitochondria. Great work! doi.org/10.1038/s422...

This week my recommended read is a great paper by Andrew Scott and Daniel Wahl and team who show that glioblastomas prioritise serine uptake to support nucleotide synthesis making them sensitive to dietary serine-glycine restriction: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We're hiring! We're recruiting a post-doc to join my lab at Barts Cancer Institute in London investigating amino acid metabolism in lymphoma biology. Apply here: qmul-jobs.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

This week my top (cancer) metabolism paper is by Max Valenstein and Kacper Rogala and colleagues who describe the structural basis for the regulation of mTORC1 by leucine and arginine. Outstanding work! doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Mitochondria protect against an intracellular pathogen by restricting access to folate | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

d-cysteine impairs tumour growth by inhibiting cysteine desulfurase NFS1 www.nature.com/articles/s42...

This week's paper is some great work by Ting Zhoa and David Scadden who show that derepressing nuclear pyruvate dehydrogenase by blocking its interaction with the nuclear protein ELMSAN1 induces therapeutic cancer cell reprogramming: www.cell.com/cell-metabol...

Very pleased to report that the results of our blood cancer breath testing study have been published in @Hemasphere_EHA www.bci.qmul.ac.uk/general-news... A massive thank you to everyone involved - particularly the patients and healthy volunteers!

📰Could a breath test detect blood cancer? New research from @richeslab.bsky.social ‬funded by @bartscharity.bsky.social suggests molecules exhaled in the breath might enable development of a simple, low-cost test to diagnose lymphoma. @qmul.bsky.social @qmulfmd.bsky.social #medsky #oncosky 🧪

Please have a look at our commentary on a recent cool paper from @lukeanthonyoneill.bsky.social lab: journals.lww.com/immunometabo...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... Cytidine diphosphate diacylglycerol synthase 2 is a synthetic lethal target in mesenchymal-like cancers

This week's paper presents some intriguing observations by Hongbo Chen and Daichao Xu and team who show that the enzyme RIPK1 senses S-adenosylmethionine scarcity to drive cell death and inflammation. Great work! www.cell.com/cell-metabol...

It was tough to decide this week as so many great cancer metabolism papers! But cancer-associated neurons transferring mitochondria to cancer cells to enhance their metastatic potential - wow! Super interesting observations by Gregory Hoover, Simon Grelet and team!: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This week its 2 papers demonstrating a link between mitochondrial metabolism and DNMT3A mutations in clonal haematopoiesis and potential for metformin: one by Malgorzata Gozdecka/George Vassiliou, the other by Mohsen Hosseini/Steven Chan: www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This week's paper is by Ning Wang and Junli Liu who show that part of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, DLAT, blocks leucine catabolism by acetylating AUH leading to leucine accumulation and mTOR activation in liver cancer - uncovering a promising therapeutic strategy: www.cell.com/cell-metabol...

Accumulation of defective depolarized mitochondria affects all T-cell subsets in CLL and is exacerbated during disease progression. buff.ly/UTsPYCE #hemesky #

I'm excited to share the lab’s new paper on PDAC-associated cachexia on bioRxiv today, led by star postdoc @nikitab.bsky.social “Pancreatic cancer cachexia is mediated by PTHrP-driven disruption of adipose de novo lipogenesis” A 🧵 below, if you are interested... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cysteine depletion triggers adipose tissue thermogenesis and weight loss www.nature.com/articles/s42... a new paper

Fascinating science in this week's #mitophagy news 👁️👁️🔥 biomed.news/bims-tofagi/... -Retinal development requires a wave of PINK1-dependent mitophagy -an AI-assisted imaging technique identified a novel mitophagy drug that decreases Abeta aggregation Thanks to @biomednews.bsky.social

My paper of the week this week is some great work by Mia Krapic and Felix Wensveen and team who report that NK-derived interferon-gamma stimulates adipocytes to release free fatty acids to promote B-cell activation to fight viral infections: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

If you’re a postdoc at Harvard and are a skilled molecular biologist or genomics researcher who would like to help build a dna sequencing based metabolomics platform (see www.nature.com/articles/s41... ) or understand how aptamers see their targets PLEASE get in touch. Fully funded.

This week my standout paper is by Alan Varghese, Evgeny Nudler and colleagues who demonstrate that cysteine restriction, by depleting GSH and CoA, exerts a maximal impact on weight loss and stress signaling compared with restriction of other amino acids. Great work! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This week's paper is some great research by Che-Chia Hsu and Hui-Kuan Lin and team who identify ALDH4A1 as a tumour suppressor that acts to maintain activity of the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier: www.nature.com/articles/s41...