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Dan Wahl @danwahlmd.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Thank you for reading and supporting brain cancer research. Our patients need better treatments and it’s up to all of us to figure this out. For more reading, check out a commentary by Sheila Sing www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

Depriving brain tumours of an amino acid could enhance chemotherapy

Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, depends on the amino acid serine as a fuel source. A serine-deficient diet has been shown to slow tumour growth in mice.

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Dan Wahl @danwahlmd.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

I am especially grateful for the patients who volunteered for this learning study. Their bravery and generosity while dealing with a new brain tumor diagnosis has generated new knowledge and potential treatments-we will do our best to make these a reality.

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Dan Wahl @danwahlmd.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

I am grateful for my wonderful colleagues who made this work happen and our funders of this and other studies. @damonrunyon.org , the Ivy Foundation, the Mark Foundation, the Sontag Foundation and the NCI.

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Dan Wahl @danwahlmd.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Many questions remain, but we are now working to bring a serine free diet to our brain cancer patients at the Rogel Cancer Center at the University of Michigan with funding from the NCI and support from industry partners. www.rogelcancercenter.org

rogelcancercenter.org

Rogel Cancer Center | University of Michigan

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Dan Wahl @danwahlmd.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

After validating these findings, we tried to target them. We blocked environmental serine uptake in mice by eliminating it from the diet. This slowed tumor growth and improved treatment responses in mice, but had little effect on the brain (which makes serine from glucose!)

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Dan Wahl @danwahlmd.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

We worked with @deepak to quantify these changes and noticed something peculiar. The normal brain seemed to make most of its serine from sugar, while the brain cancers seemed to take it up from the environment. This is important-serine can drive cancer growth and recurrence!

bme.umich.edu

Deepak Nagrath, Ph.D. - BME

email dnagrath@umich.edu Location NCRC, Bldg 28, Room 3048W2800 Plymouth RdAnn Arbor, MI 48109-0028 Phone (734) 764-9889 Primary Website Systems Biology of Human Disease

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Dan Wahl @danwahlmd.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Both tissues used lots of sugar. But the normal brain used it to make energy, neurotransmitters, and amino acids. Brain cancers turned these pathways down and instead used sugar to make the building blocks of DNA and RNA, which drive growth and treatment resistance

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Dan Wahl @danwahlmd.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

We worked with neurosurgeon Wajd Al-Holou to infuse small amounts of labeled sugar (glucose) into mouse models and patients with brain cancer and then analyzed tumor and brain tissue to figure out what they used the sugar for. al-holou.lab.medicine.umich.edu/home

al-holou.lab.medicine.umich.edu

Home

At the Brain Tumor Microenvironment lab, led by Dr. Wajd Al-Holou, we work at the intersection of spatial biology, genetics, cutting-edge therapeutics, and patient care. We are committed to identifyin...

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Dan Wahl @danwahlmd.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Brain cancers like glioblastoma are terrible. They almost always recur-even after aggressive radiation (what I do in the clinic), surgery and chemo. We wanted to understand how these cancers fuel their aggressive nature and treatment resistance.

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Dan Wahl @danwahlmd.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

New discovery from our team defining how human brain cancers rewire the metabolism of the normal brain published this week @nature.com and led by stellar postdoc Drew Scott (comentored by @lyssiotislab.bsky.social and currently on job market with a K99/R00). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Rewiring of cortical glucose metabolism fuels human brain cancer growth - Nature

The cortex fuels essential physiological processes with glucose-derived carbon, while gliomas fuel their aggressiveness by rerouting glucose carbon pathways and scavenging alternative carbon sources s...

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