The Warburg Effect: Cancer Cell Metabolic Rewiring

Most cells burn glucose through mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation because it yields roughly fifteen times more ATP than fermentation. Cancer cells rewire this choice: oncogenic signaling and HIF-1α stabilize PDK1, which throttles the enzyme gate feeding pyruvate into the mitochondria, rerouting glucose to aerobic glycolysis even when oxygen is abundant. This simulator renders a 3D cell with instanced mitochondria and a live particle flow of glucose, lactate and ATP, so you can dial HIF-1α drive, tissue oxygen and glucose supply and watch the metabolic flux — and its ATP/lactate/O₂ consequences — shift in real time between a normal and a cancerous phenotype.