Cancer cells can cooperate to grow Scientists found that, when deprived of amino acids, cancer cells cooperated to extract and share them from their environment.

#Medsky🧪#oncosky a fascinating research @NIH’s study found that cancer cells can cooperate with each other to extract and share key molecules from their environment in order to survive …
www.nih.gov/news-events/...
@nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cooperative nutrient scavenging is an evolutionary advantage in cancer | Nature The survival of malignant cells within tumours is often seen as depending on ruthless competition for nutrients and other resources1,2. Although competition is certainly critical for tumour evolution and cancer progression, cooperative interactions within tumours are also important, albeit poorly understood3,4. Cooperative populations at all levels of biological organization risk extinction if their population size falls below a critical tipping point5,6. Here we examined whether cooperation among tumour cells may be a potential therapeutic target. We identified a cooperative mechanism that enables tumour cells to proliferate under the amino acid-deprived conditions found in the tumour microenvironment. Disruption of this mechanism drove cultured tumour populations to the critical extinction point and resulted in a marked reduction in tumour growth in vivo. Mechanistically, we show that tumour cells collectively digest extracellular oligopeptides through the secretion of amin

Cancer cells cooperate to efficiently share nutrients, challenging the belief they only compete. Cooperation may be key in tumor survival! PMID:39972131, Nature 2025, @Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08588-w #Medsky #Pharmsky #RNA #ASHG #ESHG 🧪

Thanks! :) This means a lot

Cooperative nutrient scavenging is an evolutionary advantage in cancer Nature - Nutrient-starved tumour cells cooperate by secreting aminopeptidases that digest oligopeptides in the microenvironment, creating a shared pool of free amino acids.

Cancer cells collectively scavenge nutrients by secreting aminopeptidases, enabling survival in nutrient-poor environments.

Targeting CNDP2, a key enzyme in this process, could offer a novel therapeutic strategy.

Cool concept, elegantly tested + penguins in figure!

doi.org/10.1038/s415... 🧪

Thanks for the kind post! :)

Cooperative nutrient scavenging is an evolutionary advantage in cancer - Nature Nutrient-starved tumour cells cooperate by secreting aminopeptidases that digest oligopeptides in the microenvironment, creating a shared pool of free amino acids.

Tumor cells help each other out when amino acids are scarce www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Strength in numbers: tumor cells cooperate to survive under metabolic stress

Out on today's issue! :)

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

To improve our lab’s efficiency we are currently not hiring new people needed to do new research.

In fact, we are concluding that not doing science at all may be the most cost efficient form of science…

Congrats Iain! We’ll need now to think whether we can use models with bo alignment in non-cognitive units like cells? 🤔

The behavioral mechanisms governing collective motion in swarming locusts Collective motion, which is ubiquitous in nature, has traditionally been explained by “self-propelled particle” models from theoretical physics. Here we show, through field, lab, and virtual reality e...

Virtual reality rewrites the rules of the swarm. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
We find that classical models of collective behavior fail to account for collective motion.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Gracias!

Cooperative nutrient scavenging is an evolutionary advantage in cancer - Nature Nutrient-starved tumour cells cooperate by secreting aminopeptidases that digest oligopeptides in the microenvironment, creating a shared pool of free amino acids.

new out in Nature www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cooperative nutrient scavenging is an evolutionary advantage in cancer - Nature Nutrient-starved tumour cells cooperate by secreting aminopeptidases that digest oligopeptides in the microenvironment, creating a shared pool of free amino acids.

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

Cancer Cells Cooperate to Scavenge for Nutrients Strength in numbers: NYU scientists discover that cancer cells cooperate to survive challenging conditions, creating new therapeutic possibilities

Third: Special kudos to the first co-authors Gizem and Seti, and to the fundamental linebackers: Logan and Manon.
Finally: Many thanks to our collaborators at the @lydiafinley.bsky.social and PapaG labs!

www.nyu.edu/about/news-p...

Cooperative nutrient scavenging is an evolutionary advantage in cancer Nature - Nutrient-starved tumour cells cooperate by secreting aminopeptidases that digest oligopeptides in the microenvironment, creating a shared pool of free amino acids.

First: I apologize for never coming here and now doing so only to brag 😬
Second: I am very proud of the people in our lab. We are a small group in a Bio department and this work took an enormous amount of effort from every one here.
rdcu.be/eaxEz

When you leave your lab for a few days…

Great work from several lab members -- specially from Libi Anandi and Jeremy Garcia!

Tiny Tumor Model Recreates Cancer Metastasis Using 3D printing, scientists replicate the tumor environment to visualize cancer’s spread in real time

NYU news wrote this very nice summary of our recent paper www.nyu.edu/about/news-p...
It's about the 3MIC, a simple 3D culture system to recreate some of the complexities of the tumor microenvironment. Online now at LSA
www.life-science-alliance.org/content/8/1/...

Happy birthday @carmofonlab.bsky.social !!!

And happy new year to everyone!

A Xmass present: I was recently told I got tenure. An amazing collective achievement as a lab, supported by collaborators and colleagues, and what I can only assume as favorable secret letters of support ;) So thank you all! K!

Hello Bluesky! I have been away from social media for months!

Did I miss anything?

Hello Sky!
Welcome to the Carmofon Lab account.

Bye bye Twitter