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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

My recommended paper this week is by Pushkal Sharma, Ankur Jain and team who show that polyamines buffer labile iron, restraining its reactivity to suppress ferroptosis. Polyamine depletion raises labile iron creating synthetic lethality with GPX4 loss. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

cell.com

Polyamines buffer labile iron to suppress ferroptosis

Polyamines buffer labile iron, restraining its reactivity to suppress ferroptosis. Their depletion raises labile iron and creates synthetic lethality with GPX4 loss, revealing polyamine metabolism as ...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Great opportunity for clinicians to do a PhD with the CRUK City of London Clinical Training Programme. I have a project with Alan Ramsay at Kings investigating stromal metabolic vulnerabilities regulating immune infiltration in lymphoma: please contact if interested. www.colcc.ac.uk/2027-crtf-su...

colcc.ac.uk

2027 CRTF supervisor list

Our research aims to improve the effectiveness of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell immunotherapies for both adult and childhood cancers. A major barrier to successful treatment of solid tumours ...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

This weeks recommended read is from Deborah Suissa, Laurence Zitvogel and team who looked at plasma samples and found that higher histidine was linked to better outcomes, while succinate and long-chain FAs predicted poorer survival with immunotherapy. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Metabolic determinants of cancer immunotherapy outcomes identified by plasma profiling - Nature Medicine

Mass-spectrometry-based metabolomic analysis of plasma samples from multiple cohorts of patients treated with immunotherapy across five distinct tumor types, followed by machine learning enabled ident...

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Reposted by John Riches

Cancer Research UK City of London Centre @cruk-cityoflondon.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Are you a #clinician in training? Do you want to do a #PhD in #cancerresearch? 🧪🔬🦠🧫 Recruitment for the September 2026 start is open now!👨🏾‍🔬👩‍🔬 Check out our website for more information and potential supervisors. www.colcc.ac.uk/clinical-res...

colcc.ac.uk

Clinical Research Training Fellowships (CRTF) new

Aimed at clinicians who wish to undertake PhD research training. Applications for the 2027 Clinical Research Training Fellowships is open info package Application system will open soon Clinical ...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

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...

nature.com

Metabolite glues as a means of purine sensing and chemotherapeutic response - Nature

Purines can act as endogenous molecular glues in human cells by anchoring a rate-limiting enzyme in purine biosynthesis to its inhibitor, and modifying this mechanism could provide a way to improve th...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

nature.com

Metabolite glues as a means of purine sensing and chemotherapeutic response - Nature

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

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...

doi.org

Succinate dehydrogenase loss suppresses pyrimidine biosynthesis via succinate-mediated inhibition of aspartate transcarbamylase - Nature Metabolism

Succinate acts as a competitive inhibitor of mammalian aspartate transcarbamylase (ATCase), leading to impaired pyrimidine biosynthesis and reduced proliferation under SDH inhibition.

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

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...

nature.com

Mitochondria directly interact with the nuclear pore complex - Nature

Mitochondria interact directly with the nuclear pore complex via VDAC1–RANBP2 binding to sustain nuclear ATP levels.

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

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...

jci.org

JCI - Aspartate deficiency amplifies cGAS-STING signaling in antitumor immunity

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

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...

doi.org

αKG-mediated carnitine synthesis drives DNA repair via histone acetylation - Nature

The metabolite αKG promotes carnitine synthesis and increases site-specific histone acetylation, thereby promoting homologous recombination-mediated DNA repair, which has potential implications f...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

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...

nature.com

Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate couples glycolytic activity to cell adhesion - Nature Cell Biology

Hoffmann et al. show that the glycolytic intermediate fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, which accumulates in the absence of aldolase, regulates focal adhesions by relieving RCC2-mediated Rac1 inhibition.

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

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...

doi.org

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

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...

nature.com

Tumour acidosis remodels the glycocalyx to control lipid scavenging and ferroptosis - Nature Cell Biology

Bång-Rudenstam et al. report that the acidic tumour microenvironment facilitates the assembly of chondroitin sulfate-enriched glycocalyx to disrupt lipid scavenging and prevent ferroptosis, thereby pr...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

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...

nature.com

Native chromatome profiling reveals hundreds of metabolic enzymes in the nucleus across tissues - Nature Communications

Here proteomic chromatome analysis shows metabolic enzymes widely localize to chromatin in cancer in a tissue-specific manner. Nuclear enzymes affect DNA damage/repair and transcription, revealing non...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

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...

nature.com

Lipid metabolism drives dietary effects on T cell ferroptosis and immunity - Nature

The susceptibility of mouse and human T cells to ferroptosis is determined by the balance of systemic polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, highlighting a key role for lipid metabolism and ...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

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...

nature.com

Inhibiting macrophage-derived lactate transport restores cGAS–STING signalling and enhances antitumour immunity in glioblastoma - Nature Cell Biology

Li, Cui, Yang, Lu, Jiang, Zhang and colleagues identify a lactate transport mechanism from tumour-associated macrophages that regulates DNA repair and immune cell infiltration, which could be targeted...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

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...

doi.org

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Reposted by John Riches

Barts Cancer Institute (Queen Mary University of London) @qmbci.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

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

youtu.be

Driving discoveries for tomorrow's cancer care at Barts Cancer Institute

YouTube video by BCIQMUL

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

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...

nature.com

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...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

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...

doi.org

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

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...

nature.com

Polyamine-dependent metabolic shielding regulates alternative splicing - Nature

Polyamines prevent the action of kinases on acidic phosphorylatable motifs in spliceosomal proteins, thus providing a mechanism for metabolite-mediated regulation of alternative splicing in cells.

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

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...

doi.org

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

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...

doi.org

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

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...

cell.com

Innate immune and metabolic signals induce mitochondria-dependent membrane lysis via mitoxyperiosis

Wang et al. identify a new lytic cell death pathway, mitoxyperilysis, triggered by the synergy of innate immune activation and metabolic stress. This process is regulated by mTORC2 and involves persis...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

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....

science.org

T cell cholesterol transport links intestinal immune responses to dietary lipid absorption

The intrinsic pathways that control membrane organization in immune cells and their impact on cellular functions are poorly defined. We found that the nonvesicular cholesterol transporter Aster-A link...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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...

cell.com

Glucose restriction shapes pre-metastatic innate immune landscapes in the lung through exosomal TRAIL

While targeting glucose metabolism shows potential in cancer therapy, its clinical implications remain unclear. This study finds that low-carbohydrate diets or impaired glucose metabolism in cancer ce...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

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

nature.com

Leucine inhibits degradation of outer mitochondrial membrane proteins to adapt mitochondrial respiration - Nature Cell Biology

Li et al. uncover a connection between metabolic cues and mitochondrial protein degradation, showing that specifically leucine stabilizes outer mitochondrial membrane proteins by inhibiting ubiquityla...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

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...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

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/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

2025 British Society for Haematology Guideline for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

Click on the article title to read more.

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

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...

nature.com

Species-specific serine metabolism differentially controls natural killer cell functions - Nature Metabolism

Li et al. characterize overlapping and divergent metabolic requirements of human and murine NK cells in response to activation, with a focus on serine metabolism

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

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...

doi.org

An alternative route for β-hydroxybutyrate metabolism supports cytosolic acetyl-CoA synthesis in cancer cells - Nature Metabolism

Kaluba, Rogers et al. show that in cancer cells that can metabolize ketones, they may reroute them to produce cytosolic acetyl-CoA and support tumour growth.

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

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...

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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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

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/...

qmul-jobs.tal.net

Postdoctoral Research Associate - QMUL Jobs

ID: 7057. Title: Postdoctoral Research Associate . Application Deadline:

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

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...

doi.org

Structural basis for the dynamic regulation of mTORC1 by amino acids - Nature

Using cryo-electron microscopy, the interactions of Sestrin2 and CASTOR1 with GATOR2 were resolved, revealing how mTORC1 activation is regulated and how nutrient availability triggers signalling for c...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

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...

cell.com

Derepressing nuclear pyruvate dehydrogenase induces therapeutic cancer cell reprogramming

Zhao et al. uncovered a nuclear-restricted acetyl-CoA regulatory mechanism where nucleus-localized pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (nPDC) is constitutively bound and repressed by nuclear protein ELMSAN...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

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...

cell.com

RIPK1 senses S-adenosylmethionine scarcity to drive cell death and inflammation

How cells sense nutrients to maintain homeostasis and prevent cell death is a fundamental question. Chen et al. reveal that cells use RIPK1 to sense levels of the nutrient methionine and its metabolit...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

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...

nature.com

Nerve-to-cancer transfer of mitochondria during cancer metastasis - Nature

A study reports the development of a method to trace intercellular transfer of mitochondria, and demonstrates that cancer cells that receive mitochondria from neurons have enhanced metastatic capabili...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

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...

nature.com

Metformin reduces the competitive advantage of Dnmt3aR878H HSPCs - Nature

Dnmt3a mutations in mouse haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells equivalent to R882 mutations in human cause increased mitochondrial respiration, suggesting that this is a mechanism of clonal h...

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

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...

cell.com

Pyruvate metabolism enzyme DLAT promotes tumorigenesis by suppressing leucine catabolism

Wang et al. reveal that DLAT, a pyruvate metabolism enzyme, modulates leucine metabolism by directly acetylating the leucine catabolism enzyme AUH at K109, leading to leucine accumulation and sustaine...

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Reposted by John Riches

Blood Journals Portfolio @bloodjournals.hematology.org · 07/06/2025

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

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

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...

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Michele Frison @frisophagy.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

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

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John Riches @richeslab.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

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...

nature.com

NK cell-derived IFNγ mobilizes free fatty acids from adipose tissue to promote early B cell activation during viral infection - Nature Metabolism

Krapić, Kavazović and colleagues dissect the mechanism by which natural killer cells drive adipose tissue remodelling during viral infection, thus fuelling antiviral immune responses.

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