Excited to Kick-off our 8-year Centre of Excellence focusing on Metabolic Integration. MetaScale brings together the groups of @pekka-katajisto.bsky.social @awartiovaara.bsky.social Elina Ikonen, Ville Hietakangas @emmihelle.bsky.social @rafabolism.bsky.social and @diegobalboa.bsky.social
Welcome to the PhD defense of @hienbui.bsky.social Age-selective segregation of organelles in asymmetric stem cell division, on Fri 7 Nov at 1 pm, Biocenter 2, 2041. Opponent Prof Carien Niessen, University of Cologne @helsinki.fi @hilife-helsinki.bsky.social #publicdefense #phddefense
Suomen Akatemia on valinnut 11 uutta tutkimuksen huippuyksikköä ohjelmakaudelle 2026–2033. Niistä viittä johdetaan Helsingin yliopistosta.
Yhteensä yliopiston tutkijat ovat mukana kahdeksassa uudessa huippuyksikössä.
www.helsinki.fi/fi/uutiset/y...
Still time today to sign up and submit an abstract for this excellent symposium
On Tue Oct 14th @simonsterson.bsky.social will defend his thesis Age-selective organellar metabolism in tissue stem cell function, at 1 pm in Biocenter 2 2041, Viikki. Excited to have Jared Rutter @rutterlab.bsky.social as the opponent 🎩⚔️ Welcome! @metastem.bsky.social @hilife-helsinki.bsky.social
Check out the symposium organized by our CoE, excited to have Marcia Haigis, @lydiafinley.bsky.social, Matthias Hebrok and Tom MacVicar over in Helsinki in November. Sign up by October 22nd 👇
Welcome to the Stem Cell Seminar next week Friday Oct 3rd at 9-11, ☕️🍪 at 8:30. Exciting science on embryo development, ECM, cancer and stem cells by Juha Kere and @johannaienglund.bsky.social labs. See you there! @hilife-helsinki.bsky.social @helsinki-biotech.bsky.social @stemmprogram.bsky.social
#CFM_MolCellAging: The third session will deal with the regulation of aging processes, with talks by
@pekka-katajisto.bsky.social @metastem.bsky.social @helsinki.fi and Salvador Aznar @irbbarcelona.org
Registration: http://bit.ly/4kOyYch
🤝With support of @caixaresearch.bsky.social
Pekka Katajisto @katajistolab.bsky.social introducing Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka who will talk about 2 of my favorite topics: sciences and marathons
@natmetabolism.nature.com
Also read the research briefing on our latest paper in @natmetabolism.nature.com
Also read the news item by Uni Helsinki, descibing possible future application of the findings during chemothrapy-induced damage www.helsinki.fi/en/hilife-he... 8/8 @helsinki-biotech.bsky.social
Congratulations to Simon @simonsterson.bsky.social, for fantastic persistence during the whole journey, and big thank you to all co-authors, @hienbui.bsky.social Arto Viitanen @hietakangaslab.bsky.social @pekka-katajisto.bsky.social and others @metastem.bsky.social @helsinki.fi 7/8
Our results demonstrate the existence of previously unknown asymmetric division and metabolic heterogeneity in the intestinal stem cell pool, which can’t be seen in the transcriptome. Further, we find that metabolic intervention can be used for replacement of specific defective cells. 6/8
aKG supplementation in vivo leads to renewal of Paneth cells, which in old animals reduces expression of the Wnt-antagonist Notum, and rescues recovery after 5-FU-induced damage to the level of young animals. 5/8
ISCs with old mitochondria have faster TCA-cycle turnover and higher amounts of aKG, which drives the bias towards the Paneth cell linage and increased Tet2-dependent 5-hydroxy methylation of cytosines in DNA. 4/8
These stem cells (ISC-mito-O) are better at forming organoids in vitro due to their ability to regenerate Paneth cells faster. 3/8
Using in vivo snap-tag labeling of mitochondrial age-classes, we found that the intestine contains a subset of stem cells that retain old mitochondria through asymmetric division. 2/8
Proudly presenting Simon’s @simonsterson.bsky.social paper on asymmetric apportioning of old mitochondria biasing intestinal stem cells for the Paneth cell linage through aKG-dependent metabolism
@naturemetabolism.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42... @helsinki.fi @metastem.bsky.social 🧵1/8
Thank you to the organizers of the fantastic meeting #CSMetabolites2025 Kivanc Birsoy @robzonculab.bsky.social and @cellpress.bsky.social editors Allyson Evans @kristabledsoe.bsky.social We had a fantastic time in Sitges, looking forward to this meeting happening again! @cellpressevents.bsky.social
Thank you Christian 😊
Congratulations Hien Bui who showed remarkable persistence in initiating, leading and finalizing the project. Thank you to everyone involved, especially second authors @simonsterson.bsky.social Agustin Sola Carvajal and all collaborators at @helsinki.fi i.fi @metastem.bsky.social and @ki.se. 9/9
In conclusion, we discovered a new role for peroxisomes in determination of cell fate of adult stem cells through their age-dependent segregation and spatially compartmentalized metabolism. The SNAP-PTS1 mouse will be a valuable tool for studying peroxisomal heterogeneity also in other tissues. 8/9
We found that sub-cellular compartmentalization of specific metabolic reactions determines cell fate as expression of G6PD specifically on the peroxisome membrane, but not in the cytosol or in the peroxisome matrix, boosted stemness through peroxisomal ether lipid synthesis. 7/9
