Brandon Chen, PhD

Machine-learning-guided discovery of SLC25A45 as a mediator of mitochondrial methylated amino acid import and carnitine synthesis Khan et al. apply machine learning to identify substrates of UNC93A, SLC45A4, and SLC25A45. Biochemical assays and in vivo metabolite tracing establish SLC25A45 as a key mediator of mitochondrial impo...

The link to our paper: dlvr.it/TP5gK5

An orphan no more: SLC25A45 controls mitochondrial import of methylated amino acids Solute carrier (SLC) genes encode the largest membrane transporter superfamily, with many orphan members of unknown function. In recent Cell Metabolism and Molecular Cell articles, Khan et al. and Dia...

Also thanks to Zachary Sebo and Navdeep Chandel for writing a preview to our work as well as a complementary study from Thomas MacVicar's lab www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

The cover depicts a GWAS Manhattan plot as a city skyline reflected onto a New York City-style subway metabolic map: organelles as boroughs, metabolites as stations, transporters as trains.

Happy to see our recent work on SLC25A45 featured on the cover of @cp-cellmetabolism.bsky.social . Huge thanks to @yuyangliu.bsky.social for the design! @KivancBirsoy @rockefeller.edu

Machine-learning-guided discovery of SLC25A45 as a mediator of mitochondrial methylated amino acid import and carnitine synthesis Khan et al. apply machine learning to identify substrates of UNC93A, SLC45A4, and SLC25A45. Biochemical assays and in vivo metabolite tracing establish SLC25A45 as a key mediator of mitochondrial impo...

Excited to share our work on discovery of SLC25A45 as a mediator of mitochondrial methylated amino acid import and carnitine biosynthesis. @cp-cellmetabolism.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-metabol...

ACAD10 and ACAD11 enable mammalian 4-hydroxy acid lipid catabolism - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Rashan, Bartlett and colleagues show that mammalian 4-hydroxy fatty acids are primarily catabolized by ACAD10 and ACAD11 (atypical mitochondrial and peroxisomal acyl-CoA dehydrogenases, respectively) ...

AND IT'S DONE! A 🧵 on our recent article now out in @natsmb.nature.com! Co-led with @abbybartlett.bsky.social, Pagliarini Lab, @judisimcox.bsky.social, we find ACAD10/11 are NOT like other acyl-CoA dehydrogenases and instead catabolize atypical lipids called 4-hydroxy acids 🤯 doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Beyond grateful to share that my main PhD thesis project, Targeting PIKfyve-driven lipid metabolism in pancreatic cancer (@lyssiotislab.bsky.social + Arul Chinnaiyan lab), has just been published in @nature.com!

Congrats on this amazing work! Excited to read it as its final form!

@lyssiotislab.bsky.social

Mitochondria-organelle crosstalk in establishing compartmentalized metabolic homeostasis Mitochondria serve as central hubs in cellular metabolism by sensing, integrating, and responding to metabolic demands. This integrative function is a…

Happy to share our most recent review on mitochondria-organelle metabolic communication with Yatrik Shah and Costas Lyssiotis now online at Molecular Cell!

We explored aspect of lipid transfer, organelle membrane contacts, ROS, metabolites, and metals!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Felt like I just finished the class yesterday! How can this years’ QI course already ending!!!!

Worst week for science EVER.

Sunday: ASM scrubs DEI mentions from website.

Tue: NASA scrubs DEI from website; ICE arrests a student on campus; NSF plans to cut staff; USAID halted.

Wed: HHMI kills diversity program; NIH trashes applications for diversity F grants.

Fri: NIH cuts indirects.

This will kill science in the US. This is how China wins. Why is this not on the news? Why are people not more upset about this?

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on

A Primer on Indirect Cost Rates

We are soliciting poster and short talk abstracts for the NYASciences Cancer Metabolism meeting. Just around the corner - join us for awesome metabolism in the Big Apple 🍎

Speakers: Kivanc Birsoy, Christine Chio, Marcia Haigis, Andy Intlekofer, Thales PapaG, Jared Rutter, Dan Wahl, Eileen White

It’s incredibly hard to study lipids in biological membranes on the nanoscale. You need near-perfect information on both membrane ultrastructure and lipid density, which usually isn’t attainable. Lipid-CLEM brought to you by @mathilda95.bsky.social changes that.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Registration and abstract submissions are open for the Third Annual SoCal Metabolism Symposium at USC. Go to gero.usc.edu/event/third-... The abstract and early bird price deadlines are Feb 28th

Fresh new paper alert 🚨 by @marcellharhai.bsky.social @jourdainlab.bsky.social et al. expanding the inventory of potential #mitodisease genes and a herculean deep-dive into FAM136A across models and human disease! 🧪🧫🐭👂
Really happy to see it out and to have played a small part 🔬

#mito #sciencesky

Really enjoyed writing this spotlight highlighting recent works from @keunwooryu.bsky.social at al in the Thompson lab along with @lyssiotislab.bsky.social and Yatrik Shah! Mitochondria heterogeneity FTW!
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Link below to the spotlight and the original @nature.com articles in the reference👇

(A) Oxidative mitochondria, in red, retain cristae to house the electron transport chain, comprising complexes CI, CII, CIII, CIV, and CV. Glutamine metabolism in the oxidative tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle fuels ATP synthesis. Oxidative mitochondria can be identified by the retention of CV expression. Reductive mitochondria, in blue, lose cristae and use reducing potential to drive reductive ornithine and proline biosynthesis from glutamine. Reductive mitochondria distinctly present with pyrroline-5-carboxylase synthase (P5CS) filaments. (B) Reductive mitochondria in which P5CS has been oligomerized into filaments are sequestered via mitochondrial fission, a process that can be mediated by dynamin-like protein 1 (DRP1). Mitochondrial fusion sequesters oxidative mitochondria. This process can be driven by mitofusin 1 and 2 (MFN1/2).

ONLINE NOW! Subcellular mitochondrial heterogeneity enables opposing metabolic demands, by @brandontwchen.bsky.social, Yatrik Shah and @lyssiotislab.bsky.social, discussing the recent work by @keunwooryu.bsky.social et al.
Read it for free until March 19th at:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1kWLq3jDgW...

I got home from lab and immediately called and wrote to my representative and senators. I urge you to do the same.

I decided to be more efficient in my doomscrolling & made my first starter-pack!😅

These are folks that IMO have been great sources of reliable info during the federal communication ban.

Please
1) tell me if you want to be taken off, and

2) give suggestions for others to add

go.bsky.app/KZnq7Qe

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service.

“Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

All NIH/NSF awards may be paused as of today. Money is disbursed annually, so if you have your money, you're OK for a while. My next R35 grant year starts Apr 1. I hope Trump doesn't read my X/bsky feeds that say he's a racist, a rapist, a cheat, & a traitor. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

From a source inside the National Cancer Institute:

“Everyone is scrambling to figure out how we’re supposed to work to serve the public when we can’t engage at all.”

Join researchers across the country in fighting restrictions on the NIH Please click the link to complete this form.

Academic workers across the country are organizing to call on our congressional representatives on Thursday, 1/30, at 3pm ET / 12pm PT to demand these restrictions be lifted immediately.
There will be a training over zoom at the beginning of the event.
Join us!
form.jotform.com/250226137228...

Reiterating my call to fellow federally-funded scientists: Call your reps, tell them how this hurts science and everything good that comes from science

(Also non-scientists, and scientists without federal funding! But the more of us who can directly speak to the impacts of these freezes the better)

I'm one of these 11,965, and with funding from the NIH and NSF, I've been able to recruit several more full-time employees to MI (many coming from other states!) since 2023.

@repdingell.bsky.social, please advocate for us in science, health, and research to continue supporting the michigan economy

Thank you 😊

Thank you Federica 😊