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Jason Cantor

@jasonrcantor.bsky.social

640 followers 150 following 41 posts

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

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Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 2

excited to share our latest work now online
@natmetabolism.nature.com, led by
@kyle-flickinger.bsky.social, where we unravel a mechanistic basis for the conditional essentiality of NADK, one of the many interesting hits from our previously reported CRISPR screening with HPLM rdcu.be/ekpu6

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Reposted by Jason Cantor

Muir Lab @muirlab.bsky.social · 29d

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...

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...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Jason Cantor

Amy Weeks @amyweeks.bsky.social · Aug 13

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...

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Reposted by Jason Cantor

Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · Jul 30

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...

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...

www.nature.com

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Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · Jul 30

big congrats, my friend, awesome work! 🎉

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Reposted by Jason Cantor

Muir Lab @muirlab.bsky.social · Jul 19

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

JCI - What’s on the menu?: metabolic constraints in the pancreatic tumor microenvironment

jci.org

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Reposted by Jason Cantor

Amy Weeks @amyweeks.bsky.social · Jul 18

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

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...

rdcu.be

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Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · Jun 18

congrats, Walter!!

Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 30

Congrats to you and your team, Natalie!!

Reposted by Jason Cantor

Natalie Niemi @nieminm.bsky.social · May 29

Very excited to share our latest work, “Mitochondrial presequences harbor variable strengths to maintain organellar function,” led by the fantastically talented @washubbsb.bsky.social graduate student Youmian Yan. A 🧵

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Mitochondrial presequences harbor variable strengths to maintain organellar function

Hundreds of mitochondrial-destined proteins rely on N-terminal presequences for organellar targeting and import. While generally described as positively charged amphipathic helices, presequences lack ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Jason Cantor

Nature Metabolism @natmetabolism.nature.com · May 9

ICYMI:

Cytosolic NADK is conditionally essential for folate-dependent nucleotide synthesis

Nature Metabolism, Published online: 02 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s42255-025-01272-3In this study, Flickinger et al. uncover the essential role of cytosolic NADK and why the relative importance of this role further depends on folate availability.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Jason Cantor

Christian Frezza @frezzalab.bsky.social · May 4

Good Sunday, all. Here is a summary of papers in #cancermetabolism and #mitochondrialbiology, packed with superexciting science and discoveries. Don't miss it, check it here: biomed.news/bims-camemi/... @biomednews.bsky.social

"Love is the quality of attention we pay to things."
-J. D. McClatchy

a penguin is reading a book while sitting on a pile of books reading vibes

ALT: a penguin is reading a book while sitting on a pile of books reading vibes

media.tenor.com

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Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 3

...as secreted by millions of other cells in the population. our prior screen data, at least, suggested that NADK2 was diff. essential in DMEM v. HPLM or RPMI regardless of FBS dialysis, though we also often use relatively lower seeding density, etc. just some speculation at least, great q! 4/4

Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 3

...so, in the context of a pooled population as is the basis of pooled CRISPR screens, it is certainly possible (if not likely) that based on seeding density and passaging frequency used thru the screen duration, the NADK2-KO cells within the population may indeed be exposed to exogenous Pro...3/n

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Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 3

...also possibly just an artifactual consequence of technical parameters used for specific CRISPR screens in 'batch' format (though often not reported). we and others have seen that in some cases, cultured cells 'net secrete' Pro into exogenous media over time...2/n

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Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 3

thanks so much, Dylan!! great q! edited for clarity :)
1-for the screens carried out in RPMI, this would certainly seem to be the case (there is plenty of exogenous Pro around)
2-for those in DMEM, it may be that 'standard' 10-20% FBS provides ample Pro...but...1/n

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Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 3

thanks so much, Christian!! 🙏

Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 3

thanks, Iza - hope that all is well!!

Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 3

thank you, my friend!! 🙏

Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 3

thanks, Natalie!! 🎉

Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 3

thank you, Tim!!

Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 3

thanks so much, Alex!! 😀

Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 2

armed with his metabolism background, Kyle will now go on to pursue his postdoc exploring regen bio w/Ken Poss, while we continue our ongoing efforts to unravel mechanistic insights into conditional gene essentiality among other directions! 11/11

Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 2

nonetheless, our findings indicate that selective NADK inhibitors may be leveraged to effectively slow DHFR activity, impairing cell growth while eluding resistance mechanisms related to direct DHFR inhibitors such as methotrexate...10/n

Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 2

given the central role of NADPH in several processes, it comes as no surprise that NADK has garnered attention as a possible target for cancer therapy, but using NADK-KO cells, we corroborate that TN (deemed a lead compound against NADK) elicits off-target effects...9/n

Jason Cantor @jasonrcantor.bsky.social · May 2

this finding also complements a distinct gene-nutrient interaction between the mitochondrial NADK2 and proline that was uncovered a few years ago by both Craig Thompson &
Gerta Hoxhaj (who has generated tons of beautiful work in this space overall) 8/n