Rate My Professor Daniel Tennant

Professor Daniel Tennant serves as Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Metabolism and Systems Science at the University of Birmingham, where he is also Deputy Head of Department and Theme Lead for Metabolism. Additionally, he holds the position of Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research Governance and Integrity) in the Vice-Chancellor's Office. He obtained his BA (Hons) and MSci in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge in 2002. Tennant then pursued his PhD at the University of Manchester, completing it in 2005 under the supervision of Professors Caroline Dive and David Tomlinson, focusing on diabetic neuropathy. Following his doctoral studies, he moved to the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute of Cancer Research in Glasgow, working under Professor Eyal Gottlieb. In 2011, he established his independent research group at the University of Birmingham.

Tennant's research employs stable isotope tracers to study alterations in nutrient utilization under hypoxic conditions or due to genetic mutations mimicking hypoxia, with applications to disease pathogenesis, especially cancer. He directs the Metabolic Tracer Analysis Core (MTAC) within the department, advancing techniques for metabolic analysis in cells and tissues. His laboratory investigates cellular metabolic modulation in hypoxia and metabolic reprogramming by tumor genetics. Tennant has authored numerous publications in prestigious journals. Notable works include: Eales et al. (2016) "Hypoxia and metabolic adaptation of cancer cells" in Oncogenesis; Lussey-Lepoutre et al. (2015) "Loss of succinate dehydrogenase activity results in dependency on pyruvate carboxylation for cellular anabolism" in Nature Communications; Hollinshead et al. (2018) "Oncogenic IDH1 mutations promote enhanced proline synthesis through pycr1 to support the maintenance of mitochondrial redox homeostasis" in Cell Reports; and recent papers such as Fulton-Ward et al. (2025) "mTOR activity and metabolic reprogramming of CD8+ T cells is impaired under hypoxia and within the multiple myeloma bone marrow" in Blood Advances. He supervises doctoral students on these topics, contributes as a peer reviewer for BMC Cell Biology, and delivers invited talks at international conferences including the American Association for Cancer Research and European Association of Neuro-oncology.