Jason Cantor
@jasonrcantor.bsky.social
studying genetic and environmental contributions to cell fitness in cancer and immunity | biology-engineering-biotechnology | #HPLM | current: investigator @Morgridge_Inst, assistant prof @UW-Madison
1/12 🛣️ Mapping nitrogen metabolism has lagged carbon due to substrate diversity. In @natmetabolism.nature.com, we introduce a platform to do this mapping at scale and identify mechanisms by which differentiation state dictates pyrimidine synthesis. 🧵👇 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Pleased to share our recent work out today in @natmetabolism.nature.com. This study addresses a longstanding mystery - NRF2-driven cancers increase cysteine acquisition (via xCT) by ~5x - so where does all that cysteine go?
Nature Metabolism@natmetabolism.nature.com · 4mo ago
🚨 excited to share our latest preprint on bioRxiv, led by the soon-to-be Dr. Guy Kunzmann! We tackle a striking case of conditional dependence on UFMylation, a UBL modification pathway whose contributions to cell fitness have been a bit of a "black box." 🧵
bioRxiv Cell Biology@biorxiv-cellbio.bsky.social · 4mo agoDynamic UFMylation governs cellular fitness by coordinating multi-organelle proteostasis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.27.714830v1
Today is #RareDiseaseDay Through EB Research Partnership, families, scientists, and supporters are pushing research forward, pioneering progress in EB and helping reshape what’s possible for rare diseases. It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of time. 🦋 Learn more: ebresearch.org
Good Sunday, all! Here is the curated weekly collection of papers in #cancermetabolism and #mitochondrialbiology. Don't miss it; find it here: biomed.news/bims-camemi/... Biomed News #keepreading "It's very simple to be happy. But it's very difficult to be simple." - Rabindranath Tagore
Latest collection of papers on mitochondria in health and disease! #MitochondrialDisease #week3 biomed.news/bims-mitdis/... @biomednews.bsky.social @gavinmcstay.bsky.social @mitoscientist.bsky.social @mitoscientists.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Hexokinase detachment from mitochondria drives the Warburg effect to support compartmentalized ATP production - Nature Metabolism
Hexokinase detachment from the outer mitochondrial membrane is shown to support aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells. Differential localization of the HK1 isoform to the outer mitochondrial membrane, co...
nature.com
For ~century, we’ve asked: why do proliferating cells ferment glucose even when O2 is around? I’m thrilled to share our latest work @natmetabolism.nature.com, led by @thebiokimist.bsky.social. By leveraging conditional essentiality in HPLM, we propose a provocative new answer to this classic Q. 🧵
Really thrilled to have our work on mitochondrial presequence strength out today @jcb.org. We establish quantitative parameters to better define "strong" and "weak" presequences both in vitro and in vivo. This work was spearheaded by the ever talented Youmian Yan, a BBSB graduate student in my lab.
Journal of Cell Biology@jcb.org · 7mo agoYan, @ianofbristol.bsky.social, @nieminm.bsky.social et al. define quantitative parameters underlying the strength of mitochondrial-targeting presequences, and demonstrate that yeast require strong presequences to facilitate select metabolic pathways in #mitochondria. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
happy to have collaborated on this v cool study led by Andy & Aaron from the Sean Palecek and Melissa Skala labs! culturing hPSC-CMs in HPLM effectively enhances their maturation vs traditional media ➡️ potential modeling implications for cardiac biology/CVD! tinyurl.com/3yutyd8c
Human plasma‐like medium enhances structural and metabolic maturation of human pluripotent stem cell‐derived cardiomyocytes
Human plasma-like medium (HPLM), a synthetic physiologic medium containing over 60 metabolites and small ions at concentrations reflective of adult human plasma, enhances the structural and metabolic....
tinyurl.com
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... !
Accumulation of succinate suppresses de novo purine synthesis through succinylation-mediated control of the mitochondrial folate cycle
The de novo purine synthesis pathway is fundamental for nucleotide production, yet the role of mitochondrial metabolism in modulating this process rem…
sciencedirect.com
Super excited to share our new preprint from @cssheehan.bsky.social on how the tumor microenvironment causes drug resistance in pancreatic cancer: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Tumor nutrient stress gives rise to a drug tolerant cell state in pancreatic cancer
Cytotoxic chemotherapy remains the standard-of-care treatment for patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, chemotherapy only has modest effects at improving patient survival due...
biorxiv.org
New preprint: we developed a method that uses phosphoproteome-derived peptide libraries (PhosPropels) for deep specificity profiling of phosphatases and phospholyases www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Our work on new paradigm in peroxisome biogenesis and PEX39 (1st human peroxisomal biogenesis protein (peroxin/PEX) found in > 20 yr) is out in @natcellbio.nature.com! Equal collab w/Tony Rodrigues (Jorge Azevedo lab), @dwendscheck.bsky.social (Bettina Warscheid lab) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
PEX39 facilitates the peroxisomal import of PTS2-containing proteins - Nature Cell Biology
Chen et al. show that PEX39 cooperates with PEX7 in the peroxisomal import of proteins containing a PTS2 site and uncover an (R/K)PWE motif in PEX39 and PEX13 that binds to PEX7 and facilitates the im...
nature.com
Super excited to share new review on metabolic stress and adaptations in pancreatic cancer to these stresses from @cssheehan.bsky.social jci.org/articles/vie... 1/6
JCI - What’s on the menu?: metabolic constraints in the pancreatic tumor microenvironment
jci.org
Excited to share our latest: we engineered the reactivity of a bacterial E1-like enzyme for ATP-driven modification of C termini. Our tool mimics the logic of peptide bond formation in biology for precision modification of proteins in vitro. 🧪https://rdcu.be/ewN7C
Engineered reactivity of a bacterial E1-like enzyme enables ATP-driven modification of protein and peptide C termini
Nature Chemistry - In living systems, ATP provides an energetic driving force for protein synthesis and modification. Now, an engineered enzymatic tool has been developed for high-yield, ATP-driven...
rdcu.be
Very excited to share our latest work, “Mitochondrial presequences harbor variable strengths to maintain organellar function,” led by the fantastically talented @washubbsb.bsky.social graduate student Youmian Yan. A 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Mitochondrial presequences harbor variable strengths to maintain organellar function
Hundreds of mitochondrial-destined proteins rely on N-terminal presequences for organellar targeting and import. While generally described as positively charged amphipathic helices, presequences lack ...
biorxiv.org
Good Sunday, all. Here is a summary of papers in #cancermetabolism and #mitochondrialbiology, packed with superexciting science and discoveries. Don't miss it, check it here: biomed.news/bims-camemi/... @biomednews.bsky.social "Love is the quality of attention we pay to things." -J. D. McClatchy
a penguin is reading a book while sitting on a pile of books reading vibes
ALT: a penguin is reading a book while sitting on a pile of books reading vibes
media.tenor.com
excited to share our latest work now online @natmetabolism.nature.com, led by @kyle-flickinger.bsky.social, where we unravel a mechanistic basis for the conditional essentiality of NADK, one of the many interesting hits from our previously reported CRISPR screening with HPLM rdcu.be/ekpu6
🚨 pleased to share a new preprint made possible through a fantastic collaboration with the Skala & Palecek labs! can medium composition impact the behavior of hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes? Andy & Aaron co-led efforts to tackle this question w/HPLM! tinyurl.com/ux2arjw8
Human Plasma-Like Medium Promotes Maturation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes
Maturing human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) in vitro is critical for advancing drug discovery and cardiotoxicity screening applications of these cells. However, the metaboli...
tinyurl.com
congrats, @milansavani.com, Sam, et al! very cool approach and findings! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Stable isotope tracing in human plasma-like medium reveals metabolic and immune modulation of the glioblastoma microenvironment
Background In vivo stable isotope tracing is useful for natively surveying glioma metabolism but can be difficult to implement. Stable isotope tracing is tractable using in vitro glioma models, but mo...
biorxiv.org
excited for a weekend of great science #ASBMB25! if you're in CHI, I encourage you to check out a session that Kevin Tharp & I organized, Sat @ 930 (W176): events.rdmobile.com/Sessions/Det... +a talk from Kyle (Sun @ 9, W178), and posters from Kim, Kyle, & Gavin (Sun @ 430, W375c)! (fixed link)
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events.rdmobile.com
www.nature.com/articles/s42... Metabolites are not genes. repeat, please!
Metabolites are not genes — avoiding the misuse of pathway analysis in metabolomics - Nature Metabolism
Pathway analysis, originally developed for gene expression data, has been adapted for metabolomics. However, owing to the unique characteristics and constraints of metabolites compared with genes, pat...
nature.com
happy to share our forum now online @Cell_Metabolism! fun for us (Guy & myself) to collaborate with @dfazakerley.bsky.social, Joycelyn, & Sam in putting together what we hope will be a useful piece for the broad metabolism community re: in vitro modeling! www.cell.com/cell-metabol...
Seeing the world through the eyes of cultured cells
The metabolic environment experienced by cultured cells often differs from physiological conditions. Here, we highlight the effects that the microenvironment can have on cultured cell behavior and adv...
cell.com
Excited to share a new preprint! Wireless devices use FM modulation to transmit multiplexed noise-resistant data. Led by @born2raisecell.bsky.social, we create a biochemical analogue of this paradigm using genetically encoded oscillators (GEOs) for single-cell FM streaming tinyurl.com/nbs8rw42 🧵
Safeguarding the future of biomedical science in the United States: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Safeguarding the future of biomedical science in the United States
NIH’s abrupt decision to cap indirect cost reimbursement at 15% threatens the critical infrastructure supporting groundbreaking biomedical research in the United States. This policy jeopardizes Americ...
cell.com
Breaking news: 22 states are suing to block NIH’s cutting of indirect costs. See our updated story on the Friday night news and its aftermath. scim.ag/4hTJQ6v
NIH slashes overhead payments for research, sparking outrage and lawsuit
Move to cut indirect cost rate to 15% could cost universities billions of dollars
scim.ag
excited to share a new preprint from our lab! led by the outstanding (& newly minted PhD) @thebiokimist.bsky.social we first uncover a basis for conditional HK2 essentiality in HPLM - leveraging this dependence then leads us to distinct rationale underlying why the Warburg Effect is beneficial!
bioRxiv Cancer Bio@biorxiv-cancer.bsky.social · last yr.Hexokinase detachment from mitochondria drives the Warburg effect to support compartmentalized ATP production https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.07.637120v1
The National Institutes of Health plans to severely cut the percentage of its grant money that can be used for overhead costs rather than research.
NIH slashes overhead payments for research, sparking outrage
Move to cut indirect cost rate to 15% could cost universities billions of dollars
scim.ag
Excited to co-chair #ASBMB2025 with the incredible Dave Pagliarini! This year’s ASBMB meeting promises to showcase cutting-edge science, foster dynamic collaborations, & inspire new ideas. Don’t miss your chance to be part of it—register & submit your late breaking abstracts. t.co/UwgMdxBo15
https://bit.ly/3YGLQIx
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