Metabolism in Development and Disease

In 1925, Otto Warburg noted that many types of cancer cells derive energy from glycolysis rather than oxidative phosphorylation even in the presence of oxygen. This observation has received renewed attention from cancer biologists, and it has emerged that specialized metabolic wiring (including “Warbug” metabolism) is key to supporting the production of biomass necessary for growth. How metabolic adaptations might regulate growth during development and regeneration has been less well explored, but these ideas are beginning to interest developmental and stem cell biologists. Genetic model organisms will provide powerful systems with which to understand how metabolism is regulated in development and how it changes as cells differentiate and tissues approach their final size and stop growing. Understanding how growth-promoting metabolism is normally coordinated with development will be critical to deciphering how these mechanisms are deregulated in cancer.

To help achieve this synthesis, this workshop brought together researchers interested in cancer metabolism with developmental biologists interested in growth regulation.

Workshop sessions focused on:
1) cell metabolism and growth
2) metabolic cooperation and competition between cells
3) metabolic sensing
4) cell metabolism in normal development

ATP FRET signals at different times after blocking oxidative phosphorylation in a growing wing disc of Dropsophila. Image courtesy of Venkatesan Iyer.

Download programme for this Workshop