iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

One of the most rewarding aspects of research @imperialmed.bsky.social is witnessing students grow into confident, curious scientists during their degrees👩🏻‍🔬🎓 Huge congratulations to our @imperialsandc.bsky.social students once again! Looking forward to seeing their exciting projects published soon😁

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

9/n Huge thanks to the team: Innah, Bibek @ogsurgery.bsky.social, @hannagroupicl.bsky.social @imperialsandc.bsky.social @imperialmed.bsky.social @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social Read the full open access study here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Double celebration day: PhD graduation + paper🥂

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

8/n This supports VOCs as surrogate readouts of therapy-altered lipid metabolism. Why this matters: This small piece of work demonstrates the potential of VOCs in breath or biofluids as real-time biomarkers for monitoring treatment response in precision oncology.

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

7/n To validate, we oxidised lipid standards → VOCs were only generated from unsaturated lipids, and traceable back to double bond breakages in fatty acids. Multi-omics integration (DIABLO) revealed strong VOC–lipid correlations (r > 0.7).

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

6/n What we found: Resistant cells released unique VOCs post-treatment: Alkenes, Aldehydes (e.g. hexanal, nonanal), short chain fatty acids (e.g. nonanoic, 5-octenoic acid) These VOCs correlated with lipid species rich in oleic, linoleic, and arachidonic acid.

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

5/n What we did: mTORi-sensitive and -resistant CRC cell lines Treated with OSI-027/AZD2014 Paired untargeted LC-MS lipidomics + GC-MS volatilomics

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

4/n Why mTOR? mTOR regulates lipid biosynthesis and is often dysregulated in colorectal cancer. We hypothesised that mTOR inhibitor–resistant cells would exhibit a distinct lipidomic and volatilomic profile compared to sensitive ones.

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

3/n 🌬️ VOCs = volatile organic compounds These are carbon-based molecules produced by cells, which are detectable in breath, urine, and other biofluids. They're safe, easy to sample, and can reflect underlying metabolic shifts, particularly in lipid metabolism.

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

2/n 🎯 The challenge: Targeted cancer therapies like mTOR inhibitors often show variable patient responses. We urgently need non-invasive, repeatable, and real-time biomarkers to track treatment response. Could VOCs be the answer?

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

[Paper Skeet-torial] Can VOCs be used to non-invasively monitor cancer therapy response? In our latest pilot study in @natureportfolio.nature.com Scientific Reports, we explored the volatilomic signatures of mTOR inhibitor resistance in colorectal cancer. 🔗 nature.com/articles/s41... 1/n

nature.com

Volatilomic response to targeted cancer therapy in vitro - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Volatilomic response to targeted cancer therapy in vitro

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Turns out I still haven’t had enough of #VOCs — a BSc and a PhD later — and I’m sticking around for more science as a post-doc in the @hannagroupicl.bsky.social at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

A huge thanks to my viva examiners, Prof Andrea Frilling and Prof Rob Bristow (@mcrcnews.bsky.social) for a fantastic discussion and their valuable feedback. My PhD explored the effects of intra-tumoural acidity on lipid metabolism and volatile biomarker production in oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

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Philip Leung @philipleungkh.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

🎉Last big to-do for 2024 checked off! #PhD thesis successfully defended. ✅ Dr. Philip Leung, PhD FHEA It’s been an enjoyable and intellectually stimulating 3-year journey working with @hannagroupicl.bsky.social and @dr--stef.bsky.social🙌 @imperialsandc.bsky.social @imperialmed.bsky.social

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