New Science Lead appointed to Institute for Liver & Digestive Health

He joins UCL from The Francis Crick Institute, where he established the Cancer Metabolism Laboratory, studying the roles of metabolism—the chemical processes that keep our bodies running—in cancer, liver disease, and overall health.

Having obtained his BSc in Molecular Biology at UCL, Professor Anastasiou returns to his former university in October 2025 to lead an ambitious programme on the role of hepatic metabolism and diet in cancer and obesity-related diseases.

Working alongside his new colleagues, he will also help to set and develop the scientific vision of the institute.

Professor Anastasiou completed his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Basel, Switzerland, where he focused on proteins called sirtuins, a class of deacetylases that play a role in metabolism and ageing. 

He then trained at Harvard Medical School, where he worked on metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells and the development of first-in-class small molecule modulators of tumour glycolysis.

In 2012, Professor Anastasiou founded his independent laboratory in London as part of the Francis Crick Institute’s Early Career Group Leader Programme. His team made several important discoveries about cancer metabolism:

• They were the first to engineer a mammalian metabolic enzyme that can be turned on or off, remotely, with light, allowing scientists to study how rapid, short-term changes in metabolism lead to long-term advantages for cancer cells.
• They developed new small molecules to activate an enzyme called PKM2, which many cancer cells rely on for growth. These molecules are now commonly used to study cancer and immune cell metabolism.
• They discovered how cancer cells survive hypoxia, or low-oxygen conditions, when the usual oxygen-responding pathways are not yet fully active. This revealed new insights into how tumours adapt to stress and new therapy target combinations.

In more recent work, his laboratory has been combining metabolic labelling and mouse cancer models to explore how tumours remodel host metabolism, and how diet, hepatotoxins, and other environmental factors influence liver cancer initiation, progression and therapy response.

Professor Anastasiou said: "Throughout my scientific development, I treasured the education I got from my teachers at UCL, so I am delighted with the opportunity to return and contribute to this amazing institution’s research endeavours. I am also thrilled to join the Institute for Liver & Digestive Health, one of Europe’s leading hepatology centres. This is an exciting opportunity to build on my lab’s work in metabolism and cancer, and to explore the broader roles of liver functions in systemic disease. I look forward to collaborating across disciplines to translate fundamental research into ways that help people live healthier lives."