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🥂

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.

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).

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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.