MIT Study Reveals Why Cancer Cells Switch to Lethargic Process of Sugar Breakdown FOLLOW US ON: A new study by the scientists of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found how cancer cells use an unusual process of multiplying. The study, that answers a longstanding mystery on the proliferating unhealthy cells in the human body, will be published in Molecular Cell journal. The study was conducted by MIT biologists Matthew Vander Heiden, senior author of the new study, and the lead authors, former MIT graduate student and postdoc Alba Luengo (PhD ’18) and graduate student, Zhaoqi Li. Their research showed that metabolic procedure, known as fermentation, helps cancer cells to regenerate large quantities of a molecule called NAD+, which they need to synthesize DNA and other important molecules. Speaking to MIT News, Heiden said that according to their study under certain circumstances, cells need to do more of the electron transfer reactions, which require NAD+ in order to make molecules such as DNA.