How Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer to Death

University of California San Francisco (UCSF) researchers used CRISPR gene editing to transform ordinary white fat cells into "beige" fat cells that voraciously consume calories to generate heat. When implanted near tumors in mice, these engineered fat cells consumed all available nutrients, effectively starving tumor cells to UCSF death. The research team, led by Nadav Ahituv, PhD, activated a gene called UCP1—dormant in white fat cells but active in brown fat cells—to create the hungriest possible beige fat cells. UCSF These engineered cells behaved like "energy vacuums," taking away the glucose and fatty acids that cancer cells need to survive. The approach worked against breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer cells. Remarkably, the beige fat cells even suppressed tumors when implanted far away from the cancer sites. UCSF The treatment reduced tumor growth in essentially all tumor models tested, though it was less effective in mice fed high-fat or high-glucose diets—supporting the theory that nutrient competition is the mechanism. The reliance on common medical procedures could accelerate clinical adoption. Fat cells are already routinely removed via liposuction and reinjected in plastic surgery, making them easy to manipulate in the lab and safely return to the body as a potential cellular therapy platform. The first author, Hai Nguyen, PhD, who made the initial discovery in 2021, moved to UT Austin to start his own lab but passed away suddenly in November 2024 before completing the final experiments. The paper, published February 4, 2025 in Nature Biotechnology, is dedicated to him.