Cancer Metabolism Project

Metabolic reprogramming of cancer, which was discovered by Warburg 100 years ago, has been revised as one of the important features of cancer and has been vigorously studied in recent years. It has been found that cancer cells produce substances required by cancer cells by enhancing not only ATP but also nucleic acid synthesis, protein synthesis, lipid synthesis pathways, glutamine metabolism, glutathione metabolism, methionine metabolism, one-carbon metabolism, and other metabolic pathways through aerobic glycolysis. In recent years, new findings have emerged that branched-chain amino acids are involved in the maintenance of cancer stem cells and that metabolites produced by cancer cells regulate the differentiation and activation of immune cells. This project aims to elucidate the metabolic pathways and molecular mechanisms that are specifically enhanced during the proliferation, metastasis, and invasion of various types of cancer, and to develop new anticancer drugs and therapies.

Publication

1. Commun. Biol. 5:403. (2022)
2. Sci. Adv. 8:eabf9096. (2022)
3. Sci. Rep. 11:21353. (2021)
4. Commun Biol. 4:782. (2021)
5. BMC Cancer 21:174. (2021)
6. Nature 569:275-279. (2019)
7. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 114:E7697-E7706. (2017)
8. Cell Rep. 3:1440-1448. (2013)
9. Cancer Cell 20:524-537. (2011)
10. Cancer Res. 69: 4918-4925. (2009)

Tomoyoshi Soga
Project Professor

Shojiro Kitajima
Project Assistant Professor

Yasuhiro Saito
Project Associate Professor