Philip Leung

One of the most rewarding aspects of research @imperialmed.bsky.social is witnessing students grow into confident, curious scientists during their degrees👩🏻‍🔬🎓

Huge congratulations to our @imperialsandc.bsky.social students once again! Looking forward to seeing their exciting projects published soon😁

10.10.2025 13:26 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

9/n
Huge thanks to the team: Innah, Bibek @ogsurgery.bsky.social, @hannagroupicl.bsky.social

@imperialsandc.bsky.social @imperialmed.bsky.social @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social

Read the full open access study here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Double celebration day: PhD graduation + paper🥂

03.06.2025 21:16 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

8/n
This supports VOCs as surrogate readouts of therapy-altered lipid metabolism.

Why this matters:
This small piece of work demonstrates the potential of VOCs in breath or biofluids as real-time biomarkers for monitoring treatment response in precision oncology.

03.06.2025 21:12 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

7/n
To validate, we oxidised lipid standards → VOCs were only generated from unsaturated lipids, and traceable back to double bond breakages in fatty acids.

Multi-omics integration (DIABLO) revealed strong VOC–lipid correlations (r > 0.7).

03.06.2025 21:11 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

6/n
What we found:
Resistant cells released unique VOCs post-treatment:
Alkenes, Aldehydes (e.g. hexanal, nonanal), short chain fatty acids (e.g. nonanoic, 5-octenoic acid)

These VOCs correlated with lipid species rich in oleic, linoleic, and arachidonic acid.

03.06.2025 21:11 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0

5/n
What we did:

mTORi-sensitive and -resistant CRC cell lines
Treated with OSI-027/AZD2014
Paired untargeted LC-MS lipidomics + GC-MS volatilomics

03.06.2025 21:10 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

4/n
Why mTOR?

mTOR regulates lipid biosynthesis and is often dysregulated in colorectal cancer.

We hypothesised that mTOR inhibitor–resistant cells would exhibit a distinct lipidomic and volatilomic profile compared to sensitive ones.

03.06.2025 21:09 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

3/n
🌬️ VOCs = volatile organic compounds

These are carbon-based molecules produced by cells, which are detectable in breath, urine, and other biofluids.

They're safe, easy to sample, and can reflect underlying metabolic shifts, particularly in lipid metabolism.

03.06.2025 21:08 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

2/n
🎯 The challenge:
Targeted cancer therapies like mTOR inhibitors often show variable patient responses.

We urgently need non-invasive, repeatable, and real-time biomarkers to track treatment response.

Could VOCs be the answer?

03.06.2025 21:08 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Volatilomic response to targeted cancer therapy in vitro - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Volatilomic response to targeted cancer therapy in vitro

[Paper Skeet-torial]
Can VOCs be used to non-invasively monitor cancer therapy response?

In our latest pilot study in @natureportfolio.nature.com Scientific Reports, we explored the volatilomic signatures of mTOR inhibitor resistance in colorectal cancer.

🔗 nature.com/articles/s41...

1/n

03.06.2025 21:07 — 👍 6    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 1

Turns out I still haven’t had enough of #VOCs — a BSc and a PhD later — and I’m sticking around for more science as a post-doc in the @hannagroupicl.bsky.social at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social

13.12.2024 15:31 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1

A huge thanks to my viva examiners, Prof Andrea Frilling and Prof Rob Bristow (@mcrcnews.bsky.social)
for a fantastic discussion and their valuable feedback.

My PhD explored the effects of intra-tumoural acidity on lipid metabolism and volatile biomarker production in oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

13.12.2024 15:30 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

🎉Last big to-do for 2024 checked off! #PhD thesis successfully defended.

✅ Dr. Philip Leung, PhD FHEA

It’s been an enjoyable and intellectually stimulating 3-year journey working with @hannagroupicl.bsky.social and @dr--stef.bsky.social🙌

@imperialsandc.bsky.social
@imperialmed.bsky.social

13.12.2024 15:28 — 👍 6    🔁 1    💬 2    📌 1