Differential metabolic profile of in vivo and in vitro tumor: a pan-cancer metabolic atlas

Work done in the lab of Dr. Anders Jacobsen Skanderup, Genome Institute of Singapore, Agency for Science Technology and Research, Singapore

About author

Dr. Neha Rohatgi studied Biotechnology in various parts of India, before moving to Iceland for her PhD in Systems Biology and then to Singapore for her postdoctoral research. In her research, she has been using computational and mathematical tools to study metabolism of different cell systems. She is currently working as a computational biologist in a pharmaceutical company in Canada. Apart from research, Dr. Neha loves to teach children and believes in empowerment through education

Twitter Linkedin-in
Neha Rohatgi

Interview

How would you explain your research outcomes to the non-scientific community?

Tumors are known to rely on glycolysis for energy production and reduced mitochondrial oxidation (Warburg effect). Technologies like PET scan that are used routinely to monitor tumors use this feature of tumors. However, our study shows that it is the non-cancer (stromal) cells within the tumor that show this feature and not the cancer cells themselves. We also show that cancer cells show this feature when they are grown in the lab but not within tumors in the body. We also highlight other fundamental differences in metabolic states of cancer and stromal cells inside tumors and establish a webapp called Cancer Metabolic Pathway viewer (CaMP) that can be used by others to study tumor metabolism across different cancer types.

How do these findings contribute to your research area?

This is the first study showing the metabolic states of cancer and non-cancer cells inside of a tumor and comparing these with the cancer cells grown in the lab. We highlight the importance of studying tumors as a tissue composed of many different cell types along with the metabolic changes that occur when growing cancer cells in the lab. This will be helpful in designing more accurate therapeutics for cancer in the future.

What was the exciting moment during your research?

When I joined Dr. Anders Skanderup’s lab, they were working on a deconvolution algorithm to estimate the expression of cancer and non-cancer cells within a tumor using tumor expression. Due to my previous experience in studying metabolism, I was immediately attracted to the idea of using this data to study metabolism of cancer cells in human tumors. Very early in the project we saw that it were the stromal cells and cancer cells in culture that were showing Warburg effect and not the cancer cells in the body across all the cancer types. This was a very exciting discovery as it was showing something different from what was well known and accepted in the field of cancer studies. So, we knew not many people would agree with us to begin with; however, there were some studies coming out showing results similar to ours which gave us more confidence. This is what is exciting about being in research in general, that you can challenge pre-existing knowledge by making new discoveries.

“This is the first study showing the metabolic states of cancer and non-cancer cells inside of a tumor and comparing these with the cancer cells grown in the lab.”

What do you hope to do next?

Now that we know about the metabolic states of different cell types in tumors, next we want to explore how they interact with each other. It is known that there is an exchange of metabolic intermediates between cancer and stromal cells, what needs further exploration is to know what exactly is exchanged and how it, for example, affects the body’s immune response to cancer.

Where do you seek scientific inspiration from?

I’m very inquisitive by nature and that’s what has inspired me to take up research as a profession. I remember the first time I saw a leaf under the microscope and learnt about cancer when I was in fifth grade and since then I wanted to become a scientist. Today, science and technology is advancing at a pace never seen before but whenever I start working on a project, I realize there is so much more to discover. The curiosity of discovering new things and the wish of making a positive impact on the future inspires me every day to do science.

How do you intend to help Indian science improve?

I fell in love with science because my teachers made it fun and interesting and that’s why I believe that scientific aptitude develops in childhood. Therefore, I like to engage with young children and show them how much fun science is along with empowering them to have a positive impact on the future. For this reason, I was teaching science to grade three students online during my free time in my PhD. I want to continue to engage with young minds in whichever way I can.

Reference

Rohatgi, N., Ghoshdastider, U., Baruah, P., Kulshrestha, T. and Skanderup, A.J., 2022. A pan-cancer metabolic atlas of the tumor microenvironment. Cell Reports, 39(6), p.110800. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124722005678

Copy Editor

Nivedita Kamath

Postgraduate in Biotechnology

Nivedita is a Postgraduate in Biotechnology, with one year Project Assistantship experience at inStem, DBT. She is currently a UPSC aspirant planning to appear for 2021 CSE. Although switching from science career to focus on governance policy and administration, her love for science remains ever-etched in all that she does. On her journey from a researcher toward public administrator, she believes in the critical role of science communication and journalism in bridging the gap between lab benches and public fields. Being part of BioPatrika is her being one stone laid for that very bridge.

For interview related queries, write to us at interview.biopatrika@gmail.com