Metabolism and Cell Signalling Group

Alejo Efeyan Group Leader
T +34 917328000 (Ext 3540)
aefeyan@cnio.es

Staff Scientists

Bárbara Martínez

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Yurena Vivas

Graduate Students

Lucía de Prado
Elena Fernández
Ana Belén Plata
Elena Sánchez

Technicians

Alba Sanz

In the Metabolism & Cell Signalling Lab we study the links between nutrients, cancer and aging. All our cells integrate signals emanating from the abundance of intracellular nutrients and from the nutritional state of the entire organism. Integration of these signals is key for adjusting metabolic functions, as well as for energy storage and expenditure; and importantly, the components of these signalling cascades are generally corrupted in cancer and are drivers of the metabolic complications of chronic nutrient overload. Conversely, dietary restriction regimes are extremely efficacious interventions against tumorigenesis and to delay the process of ageing, albeit we still ignore the fundamental molecular underpinnings of such protective effects. We combine mouse genetics and cell biological tools to gain insight into the genetic and environmental corruptions of nutrient signalling cascades, aiming to conceive therapeutic interventions in the context of cancer, obesity and the process of ageing.

Publications

Barradas M, Plaza A, Colmenarejo G, Lázaro I, Costa-Machado LF, Martín-Hernández R, Micó V, López-Aceituno JL, Herranz J, Pantoja C, Tejero H, Diaz-Ruiz A, Al-Shahrour F, Daimiel L, Loria-Kohen V, Ramirez de Molina A, Efeyan A, Serrano M, Pozo OJ, Sala-Vila A, Fernandez-Marcos PJ. (2022). Fatty acids homeostasis during fasting predicts protection from chemotherapy toxicity. Nat Commun 13, 5677. CNIO Publication.
Di Lorenzo G, Iavarone F, Maddaluno M, Plata-Gómez AB, Aureli S, Quezada Meza CP, Cinque L, Palma A, Reggio A, Cirillo C, Sacco F, Stolz A, Napolitano G, Marin O, Pinna LA, Ruzzene M, Limongelli V, Efeyan A, Grumati P, Settembre C. (2022). Phosphorylation of FAM134C by CK2 controls starvation-induced ER-phagy.. Sci Adv 8, eabo1215. CNIO Publication. Open Access
Fernández LP, Deleyto-Seldas N, Colmenarejo G, Sanz A, Wagner S, Plata-Gómez AB, Gómez-Patiño M, Molina S, Espinosa-Salinas I, Aguilar-Aguilar E, Ortega S, Graña-Castro O, Loria-Kohen V, Fernández-Marcos PJ, Efeyan A, Ramírez de Molina A. (2022). Folliculin-interacting protein FNIP2 impacts on overweight and obesity through a polymorphism in a conserved 3′ untranslated region. Genome Biol 23, 230. CNIO Publication.
Ong YT, Andrade J, Armbruster M, Shi C, Castro M, Costa ASH, Sugino T, Eelen G, Zimmermann B, Wilhelm K, Lim J, Watanabe S, Guenther S, Schneider A, Zanconato F, Kaulich M, Pan D, Braun T, Gerhardt H, Efeyan A, Carmeliet P, Piccolo S, Grosso AR, Potente M (2022). A YAP/TAZ-TEAD signalling module links endothelial nutrient acquisition to angiogenic growth.. Nat Metabolism 4, 672-682. CNIO Publication.
Vivas-García Y, Efeyan A (2022). The metabolic plasticity of B cells.. Front Mol Biosci 9, 991188. CNIO Publication.
de la Calle Arregui C, Plata-Gómez AB, Deleyto-Seldas N, García F, Ortega-Molina A, Abril-Garrido J, Rodriguez E, Nemazanyy I, Tribouillard L, de Martino A, Caleiras E, Campos-Olivas R, Mulero F, Laplante M, Muñoz J, Pende M, Sabio G, Sabatini DM, Efeyan A (2021). Limited survival and impaired hepatic fasting metabolism in mice with constitutive Rag GTPase signaling. Nat Commun 12, 3660. CNIO Publication. Open Access
Pae J, Ersching J, Castro TBR, Schips M, Mesin L, Allon SJ, Ordovas-Montanes J, Mlynarczyk C, Melnick A, Efeyan A, Shalek AK, Meyer-Hermann M, Victora GD (2021). Cyclin D3 drives inertial cell cycling in dark zone germinal center B cells. J Exp Med 218, e20201699. CNIO Publication.
Martinez-Pastor B, Silveira GG, Clarke TL, Chung D, Gu Y, Cosentino C, Davidow LS, Mata G, Hassanieh S, Salsman J, Ciccia A, Bae N, Bedford MT, Megías D, Rubin LL, Efeyan A, Dellaire G, Mostoslavsky R (2021). Assessing kinetics and recruitment of DNA repair factors using high content screens. Cell Reports 37, 110176. CNIO Publication.
Ortega-Molina A, Lebrero-Fernández C, Sanz A, Deleyto-Seldas N, Plata-Gómez AB, Menéndez C, Graña-Castro O, Caleiras E, Efeyan A (2021). Inhibition of Rag GTPase signaling in mice suppresses B cell responses and lymphomagenesis with minimal detrimental trade-offs.. Cell Reports 36, 109372. CNIO Publication.
Deleyto-Seldas N, Efeyan A. (2021). The mTOR-Autophagy Axis and the Control of Metabolism. Front Cell Dev Biol 9, 655731. CNIO Publication.
Spicer G, Gutierrez-Erlandsson S, Matesanz R, Bernard H, Adam AP, Efeyan A, Thompson S (2021). Harnessing DNA for nanothermometry. J BIOPHOTONICS 14, e202000341. CNIO Publication.
Ortega-Molina A, Efeyan A (2021). From mouse genetics to targeting the Rag GTPase pathway. Molecular Cellular Oncology 8, 1979370. CNIO Publication.
Plata-Gómez AB, Crespo M, de la Calle Arregui C, de Prado-Rivas L, Sabio G, Efeyan A (2021). Protocol for the assessment of mTOR activity in mouse primary hepatocytes. Star Protocols 2, 100918. CNIO Publication.
Ramón Y Cajal S, Sancho P, Soucek L, Peinado H, Abad M, Valiente M, Efeyan A, Pardo J, Quesada V, Jimeno J, Duque PM, Antón A, Varela I, Schuhmacher AJ (2020). A spotlight on cancer researchers in Spain: new paradigms and disruptive ideas. Clin Transl Oncol 22, 798-801. CNIO Publication.
Spicer G, Gutierrez-Erlandsson S, Matesanz R, Bernard H, Adam AP, Efeyan A, Thompson S (2020). Harnessing DNA for nanothermometry. J BIOPHOTONICS (in press). CNIO Publication.
Spicer G, Efeyan A, Adam AP, Thompson SA (2019). Universal guidelines for the conversion of proteins and dyes into functional nanothermometers.. J BIOPHOTONICS 12, e201900044. CNIO Publication.
Ramón Y Cajal S, Sancho P, Soucek L, Peinado H, Abad M, Valiente M, Efeyan A, Pardo J, Quesada V, Jimeno J, Duque PM, Antón A, Varela I, Schuhmacher AJ (2019). A spotlight on cancer researchers in Spain: new paradigms and disruptive ideas. Clin Transl Oncol (in press). CNIO Publication.
Ortega-Molina A, Deleyto-Seldas N, Carreras J, Sanz A, Lebrero-Fernández C, Menéndez C, Vandenberg A, Fernández-Ruiz B, Marín-Arraiza L, de la Calle Arregui C, Plata-Gómez A, Caleiras E , de Martino A , Martínez-Martín N, Troulé K, Piñeiro-Yáñez E, Nakamura N, Araf S, Victora GD, Okosun J, Fitzgibbon J & Efeyan A (2019). Oncogenic Rag GTPase signaling enhances B cell activation and drives folicular lymphoma sensitive to pharmacological inhibition of mTOR.. Nat Metabolism 1, 775-789. CNIO Publication.