FluxAtlas is a pan-cancer metabolic flux atlas that identifies tumor-selective dependencies and prognostic biomarkers
- 1Signalling and Cancer Metabolism Laboratory, Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, The Institute of Cancer Research, 237 Fulham Road, London SW3 6JB, UK
- 2Research Software Engineering Group, The Institute of Cancer Research, 237 Fulham Road, London SW3 6JB, UK
Abstract
Metabolic reprogramming is a hallmark of cancer, yet dynamic metabolic flux has been difficult to study systematically. Here, we present FluxAtlas, a pan-cancer atlas of metabolic flux generated from genome-scale metabolic modeling of over 10,000 tumors across 28 The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cancer types. By integrating enzyme constraints and nutrient diffusion limits, we reveal conserved and tissue-specific metabolic rewiring, including alterations in bile acid recycling, urea metabolism, and amino acid biosynthesis. We identify a bile acid-associated program that remodels glutathione homeostasis and drives gastrointestinal-specific lipid metabolism. Comparisons with matched normal models uncover tumor-selective metabolic dependencies, such as increased reliance of renal cancers on de novo purine synthesis. Under nutrient limitation, modeling predicts convergence on glutamine-dependent aspartate synthesis while preserving tissue-specific metabolic states. Machine learning models based on fluxomics predict patient survival and highlight biotin uptake as a prognostic biomarker. FluxAtlas defines the functional metabolic landscape of human cancer and is accessible at https://software.icr.ac.uk/app/flux-atlas.
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BibTeX
@article{kohli2026fluxatlas,
title = {{FluxAtlas is a pan-cancer metabolic flux atlas that identifies tumor-selective dependencies and prognostic biomarkers}},
author = {Manas Kohli and Aurélien Tripp and Anastasiia Shcherbakova and George Poulogiannis},
journal = {Cell Reports},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1016/j.celrep.2026.118029},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2026.118029},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - FluxAtlas is a pan-cancer metabolic flux atlas that identifies tumor-selective dependencies and prognostic biomarkers
AU - Manas Kohli
AU - Aurélien Tripp
AU - Anastasiia Shcherbakova
AU - George Poulogiannis
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/24
JO - Cell Reports
DO - 10.1016/j.celrep.2026.118029
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2026.118029
AB - Metabolic reprogramming is a hallmark of cancer, yet dynamic metabolic flux has been difficult to study systematically. Here, we present FluxAtlas, a pan-cancer atlas of metabolic flux generated from genome-scale metabolic modeling of over 10,000 tumors across 28 The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cancer types. By integrating enzyme constraints and nutrient diffusion limits, we reveal conserved and tissue-specific metabolic rewiring, including alterations in bile acid recycling, urea metabolism, and amino acid biosynthesis. We identify a bile acid-associated program that remodels glutathione homeostasis and drives gastrointestinal-specific lipid metabolism. Comparisons with matched normal models uncover tumor-selective metabolic dependencies, such as increased reliance of renal cancers on de novo purine synthesis. Under nutrient limitation, modeling predicts convergence on glutamine-dependent aspartate synthesis while preserving tissue-specific metabolic states. Machine learning models based on fluxomics predict patient survival and highlight biotin uptake as a prognostic biomarker. FluxAtlas defines the functional metabolic landscape of human cancer and is accessible at https://software.icr.ac.uk/app/flux-atlas.
SN - 2211-1247
ER -