BMG Faculty Candidate Seminar
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics presents:
"Metabolic Mechanisms Linking Aging, Stress Adaptation, and Cancer Progression"
Justin Zhongchi Li, PhD
Instructor
Department of Pharmacology
Weill Cornell Medicine
New York, NY
Abstract:
Aging is the greatest risk factor for cancer, yet the mechanisms by which the aged host environment promotes tumor progression remain incompletely understood. This seminar will explore the concept that aging-associated metabolites can act as signaling molecules that regulate cell fate decisions and disease progression. I will focus on the propionate metabolism pathway, a nutrient-linked metabolic network that integrates branched-chain amino acid and odd-chain fatty acid metabolism and generates metabolites with regulatory potential.
Our work identifies propionate metabolism as a mechanistic link between aging and cancer. In cancer models, remodeling of this pathway promotes tumor progression through both aging-associated systemic metabolites, such as methylmalonic acid, and tumor-intrinsic propionyl-CoA–dependent signaling. These findings suggest that metabolites generated or accumulated during aging can actively reshape tumor cell behavior and the tumor microenvironment.
Extending this concept to organismal aging, studies in aged mouse models indicate that propionate metabolism also contributes to age-associated metabolic and immune remodeling. Dietary manipulation of this pathway provides a strategy to test how nutrient-sensitive metabolism influences inflammaging, tissue dysfunction, and the aged environment that supports cancer development.
Together, this work uses a defined metabolic pathway to connect aging biology and cancer biology. By viewing cancer through the lens of age-associated metabolic signaling, this research provides a new framework for understanding why cancer risk and aggressiveness increase with age and may reveal actionable metabolic vulnerabilities for intervention.
Hosts: Drs. Ali Shilatifard, Chairman, and Issam Ben-Sahra, Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Linda Jackson
Email