Ayush Midha @ayushmidha.bsky.social · 02/09/2026New preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We uncovered surprising roles for a little-known metabolic pathway, branched-chain amino acid fermentation, with implications for hypoxia, mitochondrial dysfunction, alcohol toxicity, and fertility. 122
Ayush Midha @ayushmidha.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Aerobic metabolism relies on the flow of electrons from fuels to NADH to oxygen. In hypoxia, mammals use anaerobic electron carriers, like lactate. We built a time- and organ-resolved hypoxia metabolome dataset to identify other electron carriers: jain-lab-ucsf.github.io/hypoxia-meta... 100
Ayush Midha @ayushmidha.bsky.social · 02/09/2026We identified another set of electron carriers: branched-chain hydroxyacids (BCHAs), which come from branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). BCAA derivatives are fermented instead of oxidized, regenerating NAD+. This pathway is known in micro-organisms but not well-studied in mammals. 100
