Ben-Sahra Lab

FEBS Press Cytarabine is a key therapy for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), but its efficacy is limited by the dNTPase SAMHD1, which hydrolyses its active metabolite. Screening nucleotide biosynthesis inhibitors ...

Happy to share the second paper from the group this year, out in @moloncology.bsky.social

Another story about the dNTPase & drug resistance factor SAMHD1 and our attempts to find ways to suppress its activity in cancer cells 👇

febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

@scilifelab.se @ki.se

Citrate clearance is a major function of aconitase 2 in the canonical TCA cycle Beyond its traditional role in supporting bioenergetic and biosynthetic demands, the canonical TCA cycle is also essential for nutrient clearance. When pyruvate oxidation and citrate production increase, aconitase 2 becomes essential to prevent mitochondrial citrate accumulation, which can trigger the integrated stress response and impair cell fitness.

Now online! Citrate clearance is a major function of aconitase 2 in the canonical TCA cycle

Language model-guided anticipation and discovery of mammalian metabolites - Nature Chemical language models trained on known metabolites can identify previously unknown metabolites from mass spectrometry-based metabolomics data with high accuracy.

#NatMetabPicks | In @nature.com led by @skinnider.bsky.social ( @princeton.edu ) 🧪

DeepMet is a chemical language model designed to predict the existence of previously unrecognized metabolites.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What happens when tumor cells can't find enough nutrients? They "call" other cells. We have found a new mediator of this phenomenon: the multifunctional cytokine LIF 👇🧵

CLCC1 promotes hepatic neutral lipid flux and nuclear pore complex assembly - Nature CRISPR–Cas9 screening identifies CLCC1 as a factor that increases neutral lipid flux to prevent hepatic steatosis and promotes nuclear pore complex assembly by promoting membrane bending and fusi...

Sooo happy to share our new paper in @nature.com “CLCC1 promotes hepatic neutral lipid flux and nuclear pore complex assembly.” A terrific collaboration with @arrudalab.bsky.social, led by co–first authors Alyssa Mathiowetz and Emily Maymand.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A genetically encoded bifunctional enzyme mitigates redox imbalance and lipotoxicity - Nature Metabolism The authors present a genetically encoded tool based on a bifunctional enzyme that can regenerate NAD+ while executing an engineered glycerol shunt. The tool successfully restored redox imbalance and ...

A wonderful collection of literature from #week8 on #Mitochondria in #Health & #Disease! 📚

biomed.news/bims-mitdis/...

@biomednews.bsky.social @gavinmcstay.bsky.social @mitoscientist.bsky.social

A [...] bifunctional enzyme mitigates redox imbalance and lipotoxicity
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Good Sunday, all. There is a wonderful curated selection of papers in #cancermetabolism and #mitochondrialbiology here: biomed.news/bims-camemi/... @biomednews.bsky.social #keepreading

The real truth, that dare not speak itself, is that no one is in control. Absolutely no one.

Terence McKenna

Thinking Like a Scientist, Part Three: Hypothesis Retrofitting Scientific papers are more complex than ever, but are we gaining deeper understanding or losing sight of the hypothesis? In this third part of Thinking like a scientist, I reflect on data-driven scien...

Papers are increasingly challenging to navigate, not only because of the sheer volume of data they contain but also because of their structure. This is a delicate point of discussion that we, as a community, should address. I would love hearing your views on this.

network.febs.org/posts/thinki...

Good Sunday, mitolovers. Here is the weekly curated issue of papers in #cancermetabolism and #mitochondrialbiology, with truly remarkable papers: lnkd.in/e7HDuVuU @biomednews.bsky.social #keepreading

"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."-Simone Weil

Nucleotide metabolic rewiring enables NLRP3 inflammasome hyperactivation in obesity Obesity is a major disease risk factor due to obesity-associated hyperinflammation. We found that obesity induced Nod-like receptor pyrin domain–containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome hyperactivation and e...

Why is obesity often associated with dysregulated, low-grade chronic inflammation?
In our new paper in @science.org we show that obesity rewires nucleotide metabolism in immune cells, making inflammatory responses much easier to trigger. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Congratulations, Jason, and @thebiokimist.bsky.social!! Happy to see this fantastic study out!

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. 🧵

Metabolic adaptations rewire CD4+ T cells in a subset-specific manner in human critical illness with and without sepsis - Nature Immunology Rathmell and colleagues show that metabolic reprograming of regulatory T cells is associated with severity of critical illness in patients with and without sepsis.

Metabolic adaptations rewire CD4+ T cells in a subset-specific manner in human critical illness with and without sepsis

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to announce that registration is officially open for #METPHYS2026!

All meeting details can be found here:
www.sablesys.com/metphys-the-...

MetaboList – December 2025 Diet and cancer Dual impacts of serine/glycine-free diet in enhancing antitumor immunity and promoting evasion via PD-L1 lactylation Tong et al, Zhen Lei Hubing Shi ∙ Xuelei Ma. Dietary restriction…

Here’s a new compilation of papers about cancer metabolism published last month
MetaboList - December 2025

Special section about diet and cancer

metabolist.wordpress.com/2026/01/09/m...

Join us for the 2026 NYAS Cancer Metabolism conference on March 24th at NYU Langone! The poster deadline is rapidly approaching. Speakers include @airdlab.bsky.social @bensahralab.bsky.social Javier Garcia-Bermudez, Marcus Goncalves, @naama-kanarek.bsky.social @bdmanning.bsky.social Erika Pearce,

Interested in stable isotope infusions but daunted by jugular catheter surgery? New from postdoc @kimyumi0201.bsky.social: our simple tail vein catheter method enables anesthesia-free infusions in awake, freely moving mice. 🧵

happy to announce that i have post-doc openings for mid-2016 to advance this science

please read our work, think about the most exciting questions & approaches, & be in touch for an interview

note that there are now human data in support of our model
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

In vivo models bring FSP1 inhibitors to life - Nature Cell Biology FSP1 is a key suppressor of lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis, yet it is largely dispensable in standard cell culture models. Two new studies now show that FSP1 becomes essential for tumour growth in...

Happy to see our News & Views is out! We highlight two landmark papers demonstrating the potential for therapeutic targeting of FSP1 and #ferroptosis in in vivo cancer models. Beautiful work from @ubellackerlab.bsky.social, Thales Papagiannakopoulos, and colleagues. 🥳
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pleased to announce the publication of talented postdoc Dr. Yeh's new paper "Ketogenesis is Dispensable for the Metabolic Adaptations to Caloric Restriction"!

a pointilllist mito

Good Sunday, all. Don't miss this week's selection of papers in #cancermetabolism and #mitochondrialbiology as there are some true gems: biomed.news/bims-camemi/... @biomednews.bsky.social #keepreading

"The everyday human gesture is always a heartbeat away from the miraculous."-Nick Cave

A fin-loop-like structure in GPX4 underlies neuroprotection from ferroptosis A fin-like structural loop in GPX4 is critical for anchoring the enzyme to cellular membranes, thereby preventing ferroptosis. A patient-associated R152H mutation destabilizes this loop, leading to fe...

A fin-loop-like structure in GPX4 underlies neuroprotection from ferroptosis: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

🚨The Yap Lab at Northwestern Univ is looking to fill 2 postdoc positions in 2026 to study aspects of Staphylococcus aureus antibiotic resistance and RNA synthesis-degradation. Please contact Frances Yap at frances.yap@northwestern.edu for details. sites.northwestern.edu/yaplab/. Pls repost #Microsky

Leveraging biochemical covariance to better understand biology In a recent Nature article, Xiao et al. report development of a metabolite-protein covariation architecture (MPCA) database from a diversity outbred mouse cohort that facilitates the deciphering of metabolite-protein relationships in liver and brown adipose tissue (BAT). Using these correlations, the authors describe a role for LRRC58 in controlling cysteine-taurine metabolism.

Leveraging biochemical covariance to better understand biology

Congrats to you and the team, my friend!

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....

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

An inherited mitochondrial DNA mutation remodels inflammatory cytokine responses in macrophages and in vivo in mice - Nature Communications Inherited mitochondrial DNA mutations can result in diverse clinical phenotypes. Here, the authors characterise a heteroplasmic tRNAAla mutation (m.5019A>G) in mice and demonstrate that macrophages...

Very excited to announce that the first paper from the lab is now live @natcomms.nature.com #mitochondria #immunometabolism

This work was led by postdoc Eloise marques with many important contributions from all of our co-authors.

Please check it out!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Good Sunday!. A wonderful selection of papers in #cancermetabolism and #mitochondrialbiology is waiting for you here: biomed.news/bims-camemi/... @biomednews.bsky.social #keepreading

"99.9 per cent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself—and there isn't one."
-Wei Wu Wei

Congratulations, Alexis and team! Exciting findings!