This achievement addresses a long-standing challenge in drug development: the lack of scalable, unbiased methods for characterizing how compounds affect cellular function. Traditional approaches are low-throughput and often miss complex, system-wide effects. By leveraging metabolomics, the team was able to capture a functional, multi-layered view of drug-induced changes in cancer cell lines.

Notably, many drugs caused significant metabolic shifts without inhibiting cell growth—highlighting effects overlooked by conventional screens. The study also revealed unexpected activities in known drugs. For instance, tiratricol, a thyroid medication, was found to affect nucleotide synthesis, suggesting that the medication might have potential applications in cancer therapy by targeting cancer cell metabolism.

Laurentz emphasizes that mapping how drugs alter metabolism can accelerate development, enable rational repurposing, and ultimately guide personalized treatment strategies. Future work will integrate this metabolic data with patient-specific profiles and explore how the body processes these compounds to better predict therapeutic outcomes.

Additionally, for the first time, the DBM introduced the Best Presentation Award, recognizing the most outstanding talk delivered during the summer symposium. This year, the award was presented to Johanna Nimmerfroh, PhD student in the Läubli Lab, for her presentation titled “Sweet success: The role of sialic acid on T cell function”.

Congratulations to both Laurentz and Johanna for their exceptional research achievements — we are proud to have such outstanding science taking place at our department.

Original Publication