Lung adenocarcinoma promotion by air pollutants

Nature · 2023 · 716 citations

• Cancer research
• Medicine
• Immunology

air pollutants and provide impetus for public health policy initiatives to address air pollution to reduce disease burden.

Microenvironment drives cell state, plasticity, and drug response in pancreatic cancer

Cell · 2021 · 574 citations

• Biology
• Computational biology
• Cancer research

Dissecting cell-type-specific metabolism in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

eLife · 2020 · 84 citations

• Biology
• Cancer research
• Cell biology

Tumors are composed of many different cell types including cancer cells, fibroblasts, and immune cells. Dissecting functional metabolic differences between cell types within a mixed population can be challenging due to the rapid turnover of metabolites relative to the time needed to isolate cells. To overcome this challenge, we traced isotope-labeled nutrients into macromolecules that turn over more slowly than metabolites. This approach was used to assess differences between cancer cell and fibroblast metabolism in murine pancreatic cancer organoid-fibroblast co-cultures and tumors. Pancreatic cancer cells exhibited increased pyruvate carboxylation relative to fibroblasts, and this flux depended on both pyruvate carboxylase and malic enzyme 1 activity. Consequently, expression of both enzymes in cancer cells was necessary for organoid and tumor growth, demonstrating that dissecting the metabolism of specific cell populations within heterogeneous systems can identify dependencies that may not be evident from studying isolated cells in culture or bulk tissue.

Endocrine-Exocrine Signaling Drives Obesity-Associated Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Cell · 2020 · 159 citations

• Biology
• Endocrinology
• Cancer research