Jason Cantor's Avatar

Jason Cantor

@jasonrcantor

studying genetic and environmental contributions to cell fitness in cancer and immunity | biology-engineering-biotechnology | #HPLM | current: investigator @Morgridge_Inst, assistant prof @UW-Madison

659
Followers
147
Following
59
Posts
17.11.2024
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor

Video thumbnail

Today is #RareDiseaseDay

Through EB Research Partnership, families, scientists, and supporters are pushing research forward, pioneering progress in EB and helping reshape what’s possible for rare diseases.

It’s not a matter of if.
It’s a matter of time.

🦋 Learn more: ebresearch.org

28.02.2026 17:00 👍 3986 🔁 1010 💬 83 📌 37
Post image

Good Sunday, all! Here is the curated weekly collection of papers in #cancermetabolism and #mitochondrialbiology. Don't miss it; find it here: biomed.news/bims-camemi/... Biomed News #keepreading

"It's very simple to be happy. But it's very difficult to be simple." - Rabindranath Tagore

18.01.2026 06:40 👍 20 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
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...

Latest collection of papers on mitochondria in health and disease! #MitochondrialDisease #week3

biomed.news/bims-mitdis/...

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

www.nature.com/articles/s42...

18.01.2026 12:36 👍 18 🔁 10 💬 1 📌 0

thank you, my friend!

17.01.2026 03:01 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

thank you, Ci Ji!

17.01.2026 02:59 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

thanks for the kind words, Scott!

17.01.2026 02:59 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

🙏 We would also like to thank Alfredo, Yanina, Christoph Schmitt, & the @natmetabolism.nature.com team for an extremely helpful and productive review process, and to our reviewers for their thoughtful comments & suggestions! 12/12

16.01.2026 16:32 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

🙏 Special thanks to @acscan.bsky.social for their investment in this study and their continued support of our research! 11/n

16.01.2026 16:32 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

...to Kyle Flickinger, who spearheaded several key experiments last summer, and our entire team of co-authors and collaborators! 10/n

16.01.2026 16:31 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Huge congrats to @thebiokimist.bsky.social, whose rare blend of motivation, creativity, & resilience drove this story and will certainly propel her toward continued success (now a clinical fellow at WashU!)...9/n

16.01.2026 16:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

This study further illustrates that using HPLM isn't just about modeling the body and showing that cells behave "differently" vs. the classic media that have been around for 50+ years - it can be a powerful lens for uncovering new mechanistic biology. 8/n

16.01.2026 16:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

...Glucose capture (OMM-detached HK), commitment to glycolysis (PFK1), and proton-coupled lactate efflux (MCT) - largely in line with elegant work from the Rabinowitz lab derived from using a completely orthogonal system/approach. 7/n

16.01.2026 16:29 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

We further found that MCT4 (SLC16A3) expression can predict (conditional) HK2 dependence. By leveraging our CRISPR screen data, we further propose that the Warburg effect is driven by 3 steps...6/n

16.01.2026 16:29 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Ultimately, in contrast to these debated explanations, our data suggest OMM-detached HK supports glycolytic ATP production, which we propose is compartmentalized to meet the energetic demands of essential processes in close proximity. 5/n

16.01.2026 16:29 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Given this link, we decided to use conditional HK2 essentiality as a metabolic probe to interrogate several proposed theories to explain the benefit of Warburg metabolism. 4/n

16.01.2026 16:29 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Contrary to traditional theories, we found that HK detachment from the mitochondria actually supports both cell growth and aerobic glycolysis ("the Warburg effect") 3/n

16.01.2026 16:28 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Both contain a short N-terminal domain, which facilitates association w/ the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM). However, HK1 was dispensable for cell growth in our screens, and notably, both HK1/2 were defined as "essential" in a negligible fraction of the ~1,200 cell lines in DepMap. 2/n

16.01.2026 16:28 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Using CRISPR screens, we had previously identified hexokinase 2 (HK2) as a selectively essential gene for cells grown in HPLM versus conventional RPMI. Most cancer cells express two highly homologous HK isoforms (HK1 & HK2) 1/n

16.01.2026 16:28 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Post image

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. 🧵

16.01.2026 16:26 👍 56 🔁 27 💬 3 📌 2

Really thrilled to have our work on mitochondrial presequence strength out today @jcb.org. We establish quantitative parameters to better define "strong" and "weak" presequences both in vitro and in vivo. This work was spearheaded by the ever talented Youmian Yan, a BBSB graduate student in my lab.

08.01.2026 17:47 👍 33 🔁 15 💬 1 📌 0

thank you, my friend!

22.11.2025 03:04 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
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

21.11.2025 21:26 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
Accumulation of succinate suppresses de novo purine synthesis through succinylation-mediated control of the mitochondrial folate cycle The de novo purine synthesis pathway is fundamental for nucleotide production, yet the role of mitochondrial metabolism in modulating this process rem…

Excited to share our latest work out today in @cp-molcell.bsky.social, revealing a molecular link between succinate dehydrogenase and purine synthesis, connecting two fundamental metabolic pathways. Huge congratulations to the first author, Mushtaq Nengroo! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
!

28.10.2025 16:25 👍 61 🔁 18 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
Tumor nutrient stress gives rise to a drug tolerant cell state in pancreatic cancer Cytotoxic chemotherapy remains the standard-of-care treatment for patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, chemotherapy only has modest effects at improving patient survival due...

Super excited to share our new preprint from @cssheehan.bsky.social on how the tumor microenvironment causes drug resistance in pancreatic cancer: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

09.09.2025 21:38 👍 32 🔁 9 💬 1 📌 0
Position-specific frequency matrices can be used to calculate z-scores comparing enzyme-treated and control samples. The z-scores are plotted as heatmaps that represent an enzyme specificity profile.

Position-specific frequency matrices can be used to calculate z-scores comparing enzyme-treated and control samples. The z-scores are plotted as heatmaps that represent an enzyme specificity profile.

New preprint: we developed a method that uses phosphoproteome-derived peptide libraries (PhosPropels) for deep specificity profiling of phosphatases and phospholyases www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

13.08.2025 17:20 👍 48 🔁 19 💬 1 📌 2
Preview
PEX39 facilitates the peroxisomal import of PTS2-containing proteins - Nature Cell Biology Chen et al. show that PEX39 cooperates with PEX7 in the peroxisomal import of proteins containing a PTS2 site and uncover an (R/K)PWE motif in PEX39 and PEX13 that binds to PEX7 and facilitates the im...

Our work on new paradigm in peroxisome biogenesis and PEX39 (1st human peroxisomal biogenesis protein (peroxin/PEX) found in > 20 yr) is out in @natcellbio.nature.com! Equal collab w/Tony Rodrigues (Jorge Azevedo lab), @dwendscheck.bsky.social (Bettina Warscheid lab)

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

30.07.2025 12:16 👍 37 🔁 15 💬 5 📌 1

big congrats, my friend, awesome work! 🎉

30.07.2025 13:13 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
JCI - What’s on the menu?: metabolic constraints in the pancreatic tumor microenvironment

Super excited to share new review on metabolic stress and adaptations in pancreatic cancer to these stresses from @cssheehan.bsky.social
jci.org/articles/vie... 1/6

19.07.2025 14:59 👍 26 🔁 12 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
Engineered reactivity of a bacterial E1-like enzyme enables ATP-driven modification of protein and peptide C termini Nature Chemistry - In living systems, ATP provides an energetic driving force for protein synthesis and modification. Now, an engineered enzymatic tool has been developed for high-yield, ATP-driven...

Excited to share our latest: we engineered the reactivity of a bacterial E1-like enzyme for ATP-driven modification of C termini. Our tool mimics the logic of peptide bond formation in biology for precision modification of proteins in vitro. 🧪https://rdcu.be/ewN7C

18.07.2025 14:40 👍 96 🔁 41 💬 4 📌 0

congrats, Walter!!

18.06.2025 21:12 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0