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Innovations Teams
Onco-Metabolomics Team (OMB)

Starting date: January 2021

Work Programme

The Onco-Metabolomics Team (OMB) is a multidisciplinary team that fosters close collaboration between analytical chemists, epidemiologists, and statisticians to conceptualize and implement metabolomics-driven molecular epidemiology studies. OMB investigates the role of metabolic perturbations, nutritional and dietary factors, and the exposome in cancer development. OMB implements liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based metabolomics assays to measure metabolites in various biospecimens from epidemiological, clinical, and experimental studies.

OMB’s primary focus is to study metabolite variations directly associated with cancers and cancer-related outcomes, such as obesity and metabolic dysfunction. OMB also aims to improve the understanding of underlying molecular mechanisms of cancer development by identifying exogenous and endogenous biomarkers of cancer risk factors among dietary, lifestyle, environmental, and metabolic exposures.

Major areas of research interest include assessing the roles of (i) dietary and lifestyle exposures, (ii) the gut microbiome, including its composition and functionality, (iii) the gut–liver axis (the bidirectional interaction between the gut and the liver and its metabolic impacts), and (iv) metabolic dysfunction (disruption of normal metabolic processes) in the development of cancers, particularly those of the gastrointestinal tract.

OMB collaborates closely with other teams in NME and within IARC, as well as with large international networks of cancer and metabolic epidemiology.

Team Composition

Team Leaders: Dr Pekka Keski-Rahkonen and Dr Mazda Jenab, Nutrition and Metabolism Branch (NME), IARC
Emails: KeskiP@iarc.who.int; JenabM@iarc.who.int

Team members:
Dr Chrysovalantou Chatziioannou (Scientist, NME)
Dr Jin Young Park (Scientist, EPR)
Dr Agneta Kiss (Research Assistant, NME)
Dr Jaye Marchiandi (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Dr Inmaculada Aguilera Buenosvinos (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Dr Felix Boekstegers (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Ms Vanessa Neveu (Research Assistant, NME)
Ms Nivonirina Robinot (Research Assistant, NME)
Ms Sarah Sherwood (Administrative Assistant, NME)

Key networks: European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) (https://epic.iarc.who.int), DISCERN: Discovering the Causes of Three Poorly Understood Cancers in Europe (https://discern.iarc.who.int), EXPANSE: EXposome Powered tools for healthy living in urbAN SEttings (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/874627), ePIDEMic: The physiological impact of dietary methylglyoxal (https://www.healthydietforhealthylife.eu/project/epidemic), Zero Hidden Hunger EU (https://www.zerohiddenhunger.eu/), COLOMARK Project (https://www.colomark.org/), UK Biobank (UKB)

Key funding: World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), European Commission (EC), United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), French National Research Agency (ANR), Irish Health Research Board (HRB), French National Cancer Institute (INCa), Cancer Research UK (CRUK), German Research Foundation (DFG), and direct funding

Key publications:

  1. Senkin S, Moody S, Díaz-Gay M, Abedi-Ardekani B, Cattiaux T, Ferreiro-Iglesias A, et al. (2024). Geographic variation of mutagenic exposures in kidney cancer genomes. Nature. 629(8013):910–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07368-2 PMID:38693263
  2. Mayén AL, Sabra M, Aglago EK, Perlemuter G, Voican C, Ramos I, et al. (2024). Hepatic steatosis, metabolic dysfunction and risk of mortality: findings from a multinational prospective cohort study. BMC Med. 22(1):221. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-024-03366-3 PMID:38825687
  3. Daniel N, Genua F, Jenab M, Mayén AL, Chrysovalantou Chatziioannou A, Keski-Rahkonen P, et al. (2024). The role of the gut microbiome in the development of hepatobiliary cancers. Hepatology. 80(5):1252–69. https://doi.org/10.1097/HEP.0000000000000406 PMID:37055022
  4. Alcolea JA, Donat-Vargas C, Chatziioannou AC, Keski-Rahkonen P, Robinot N, Molina AJ, et al. (2023). Metabolomic signatures of exposure to nitrate and trihalomethanes in drinking water and colorectal cancer risk in a Spanish multicentric study (MCC-Spain). Environ Sci Technol. 57(48):19316–29. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c05814 PMID:37962559
  5. Aglago EK, Cross AJ, Riboli E, Fedirko V, Hughes DJ, Fournier A, et al. (2023). Dietary intake of total, heme and non-heme iron and the risk of colorectal cancer in a European prospective cohort study. Br J Cancer. 128(8):1529–40. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-023-02164-7 PMID:36759722
  6. Stepien M, Lopez-Nogueroles M, Lahoz A, Kühn T, Perlemuter G, Voican C, et al. (2022). Prediagnostic alterations in circulating bile acid profiles in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. Int J Cancer. 150(8):1255–68. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.33885 PMID:34843121
  7. Stepien M, Keski-Rahkonen P, Kiss A, Robinot N, Duarte-Salles T, Murphy N, et al. (2021). Metabolic perturbations prior to hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis: findings from a prospective observational cohort study. Int J Cancer. 148(3):609–25. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.33236 PMID:32734650
  8. Papadimitriou N, Gunter MJ, Murphy N, Gicquiau A, Achaintre D, Brezina S, et al. (2021). Circulating tryptophan metabolites and risk of colon cancer: results from case-control and prospective cohort studies. Int J Cancer. 149(9):1659–69. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.33725 PMID:34196970
  9. Loftfield E, Stepien M, Viallon V, Trijsburg L, Rothwell JA, Robinot N, et al. (2021). Novel biomarkers of habitual alcohol intake and associations with risk of pancreatic and liver cancers and liver disease mortality. J Natl Cancer Inst. 113(11):1542–50. https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djab078 PMID:34010397
  10. Butt J, Jenab M, Werner J, Fedirko V, Weiderpass E, Dahm CC, et al. (2021). Association of pre-diagnostic antibody responses to Escherichia coli and Bacteroides fragilis toxin proteins with colorectal cancer in a European cohort. Gut Microbes. 13(1):1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2021.1903825 PMID:33874856


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