Michalis Agathocleous
@M_Agathocleous
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Assistant Professor @CRI_UTSW, working on stem cell and cancer cell metabolism. https://t.co/MPijPugQGR
Dallas, TX
Joined May 2017
We report the first physiological benefit of ascorbate/vitamin C deficiency: protection from a major human parasite which needs it for development. We propose that this can explain why ascorbate became a vitamin (its synthesis was lost) in humans and many other animals.
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Where do cancers start? In the liver, not all cells are the same. The liver is divided into 3 “zones,” and each specializes in different metabolic tasks. We show in @Science that where a mutation occurs in a liver lobule can determine a cell’s fate. https://t.co/3YTc77gZcd (1/9)
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Reevaluation of whether histones are asymmetrically segregated during asymmetric divisions of stem cells in Drosophila | PNAS
pnas.org
Recent work suggests that asymmetric segregation of preexisting and newly synthesized canonical histone 3.1 (H3.1), but not variant histone 3.3A (H...
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New preprint! We know cancer cells with somatic mutations are selected to evade the immune system. With @imartincorena Peter Campbell @ZJL1435957 @QuotientTx, we asked if immune cells with somatic mutations are also selected to fight cancer. https://t.co/2CWjTgZ3nY 1/5
biorxiv.org
Cancer cells evolve to increase fitness and evade the immune system, but it is not clear if tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) undergo selection for somatic mutations that augment anti-cancer...
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Thought I'd repost this, since it got a bit lost in my earlier thread. So much good following from an enforcement of small groups and scientific excellence as the only metric of success.
Here is a distillation of my thoughts from a talk I gave yesterday about why it was so special -- incentives are everything, and the incentives and small group ethos at Bell maximized creative output.
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"Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought." -- Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893 - 1986)
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Delighted to see this New Scientist story discussing why ascorbate became vitamin C. A broader q. posed by our work: >100 yrs of work focused on harms of vitamin deficiencies; but are there benefits, eg resistance to parasites, that explain why some molecules are vitamins?
According to the textbooks, we lost the ability to make vitamin C because our diet meant that we didn't need it. But studies in animals suggest it had an unexpected benefit.
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According to the textbooks, we lost the ability to make vitamin C because our diet meant that we didn't need it. But studies in animals suggest it had an unexpected benefit.
newscientist.com
The textbooks say our ancestors lost the ability to make vitamin C because we didn't need it, but the loss may have protected us from some parasites
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2/2 parasitism is prevalent, therefore loss of metabolic genes that deprives parasites of metabolites would be beneficial in evolution. We predict that reduced or lost synthesis of other metabolites (vitamins) will protect from specific parasites.
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A corollary is that some molecules could have become vitamins (=not synthesized at sufficient levels for health) because their transient deficiency benefits an animal by depriving these molecules from parasites which require them 1/2
We report the first physiological benefit of ascorbate/vitamin C deficiency: protection from a major human parasite which needs it for development. We propose that this can explain why ascorbate became a vitamin (its synthesis was lost) in humans and many other animals.
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Work led by co-first authors Gongwen Chen and Ji Hyung Jun. With JP Wang's and Jim Collins's labs.
biorxiv.org
The ability to synthesize essential molecules is sometimes lost in evolution. A classic example is ascorbate (Vitamin C), which is synthesized in most animals by L-Gulonolactone Oxidase (GULO), an...
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An important idea from @Zhu_Lab. Somatic mutations that accumulate in our tissues with age are not always bad for the organism- in some physiological contexts they can be protective.
These illustrate 2 concepts about somatic mutations and how they inform therapeutic strategies. The 1st concept is that some mutations predict effective therapies that benefit the individual as well as the clone. Congrats Qiyu Zeng @SatishPatel_Cam 2/8
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Intro to 2 new studies from my lab on somatic mutations in liver disease. 1st is about a mutated gene that leads to improved clone fitness and organismal health (CIDEB). The 2nd is about a mutated gene that leads to improved clone fitness but worse overall health (TBX3). 1/8
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Fusarium graminearum already has been endemic in the US for at least four decades. The importation of Fusarium graminearum to the US does not equate to a new introduction of the organism to the US and does not, by itself, pose a new threat to US agriculture or US security.
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Michalis Agathocleous discusses the controversial role of ascorbate in #cancer development. He argues that ascorbate depletion experiments are needed to define the physiological functions of this metabolite in the development of cancer. https://t.co/9ir4J2qr7t
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Regina is the newest superstar in CRI. This would be a great lab to train in!
Congrats, @HijaiShin 👏👏 CRI's newest investigator has been named a 2025 Searle Scholar to support her #relentlessdiscovery & innovative research on lysosomes. From her discovery of LYCHOS to future plans, read more ➡️ https://t.co/uRJrSEdBew
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Happy to share that our new paper, led by a former postdoc Xiangguo Shi, reporting that the inhibition of guanosine metabolism sensitizes AML to menin inhibition was featured by the editors of Nature Communications. https://t.co/h308MyiTsK
https://t.co/YbEDaeQiLN
nature.com
On this page we provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting works recently published in Nature Communications in cancer research. We cover all aspects of ...
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A great chart which tells many others stories too in addition to the one below.
This graph tells the story of the US as the choice location for immigration of scientists in WWII, and becoming the world's scientific and technological powerhouse thereafter. Incredible that a govt would effectively reverse it; wonder who will be the beneficiary this time?
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A perspective on the physiological role of ascorbate in cancer. I argue that in vivo loss of function experiments are needed to understand if ascorbate influences cancer development
journals.biologists.com
Summary: This Perspective argues that the physiological functions of ascorbate in the development of cancer must be defined using ascorbate depletion experiments. This will inform the design of...
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🚨PhD Opportunity Alert! 🚨 My lab is seeking a passionate student to investigate how metabolites regulate stem cell function. Come join us to make groundbreaking discoveries! Find more info here:
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