Daegu Haany University professor publishes paper in top journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy

Daegu Haany University announced Sunday that Bae Jae-hoon, a professor at its Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation's Functional Food Research Institute, has published a Research Highlight paper in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, examining the links between aging stress signaling, metastasis and metabolic vulnerability in lung cancer.

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy is an international academic journal published by Springer Nature.

The paper, titled "Ageing stress signalling: metastatic plasticity and metabolic vulnerability in lung cancer," was co-authored by Bae and Lee Seung-jae, a researcher at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB).

The research reframes aging not as a passive background factor that merely raises cancer risk, but as a key biological regulator that actively reshapes cancer cell signaling and metastatic capacity.

The research team found that chronic cellular stress associated with aging continuously activates the integrated stress response (ISR)-ATF4 signaling pathway, which in turn enhances the metastatic plasticity of cancer cells.

The team also discovered that sustained ISR-ATF4 activation reprograms cancer cell metabolism to become glutamine-dependent, creating a metabolic vulnerability that could serve as a new therapeutic target.

The findings propose a next-generation anticancer treatment strategy that could control the metastasis and engraftment of aging cancer cells through approaches such as glutaminase inhibition.

"This research is significant in that it views aging not simply as a risk factor for cancer, but as a key driver that alters the signaling and metabolic environment of cancer cells," Bae said. "Going forward, I will continue to expand industry-academic-research collaboration at home and abroad to uncover biological regulatory mechanisms and translate them into functional materials and disease prevention and treatment strategies."

Bae previously identified for the first time the cell membrane receptor for OHBFB, a compound derived from oolong tea, earning recognition among the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry's Top 10 Topics. He has also been selected twice — in 2023 and 2026 — for BRIC's "People Who Illuminate Korea" honor. He has carried out consecutive basic research projects funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea since 2021, further cementing his standing as a researcher.

The achievement is also notable as an example of world-class research output stemming from the support systems Daegu Haany University put in place to strengthen its research competitiveness after being designated a "Glocal University."

The university said it plans to continue expanding researcher-centered support and domestic and international collaborative research to bolster its global research competitiveness.