Saccharomyces cerevisiae in cancer research: modeling tumor biology and enabling drug discovery
Authors:Graziana Assalve1,a, Paola Lunetti1,a, Annalisa Fai1, Luca Frattaruolo2, Anna Rita Cappello2, Alessandra Ferramosca1,* and Vincenzo Zara1
doi: 10.15698/mic2026.08.885
Volume 13, pp. 314 to 328, published 03/08/2026.
1 Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce (LE), Italy. 2 Department of Pharmacy, Health & Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy.
Keywords:
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, cancer, signaling pathways, metabolism, DNA repair, autophagy, drug discovery
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Please cite this article as:
Graziana Assalve, Paola Lunetti, Annalisa Fai, Luca Frattaruolo, Anna Rita Cappello, Alessandra Ferramosca, Vincenzo Zara (2026). Saccharomyces cerevisiae in cancer research: modeling tumor biology and enabling drug discovery. Microbial Cell 13: 314-328. doi: 10.15698/mic2026.08.885
© 2026 Assalve et al. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
Cancer is a complex disease driven by genetic, metabolic, and environmental alterations, whose investigation is often constrained by the limited tractability of mammalian systems. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has emerged as a powerful eukaryotic model to study conserved cellular processes relevant to tumor biology in a simplified and scalable context and as a versatile platform for translational and biotechnological applications. Through genetic manipulation and heterologous expression, yeast allows systematic analysis of human cancer genes and variants, providing quantitative insights into their functional impact. In parallel, yeast reproduces fundamental features of cancer cell metabolism and stress adaptation, offering a controlled system to investigate cellular responses to environmental constraints. The conservation of major DNA repair and autophagy pathways further supports the use of yeast to study genome stability and survival mechanisms in cancer. Beyond its role in basic research, S. cerevisiae represents a scalable platform for anticancer drug discovery, enabling systematic identification of drug targets, resistance mechanisms, and genotype-specific vulnerabilities through high-throughput and engineered strain-based approaches. Continued development of yeast platforms, together with synthetic biology, functional genomics, and advanced genomic technologies, is expected to accelerate therapeutic innovation and improve our understanding of cancer biology. This review discusses recent advances in yeast-based cancer research, highlighting the contribution of engineered yeast platforms to the investigation of oncogenic signaling, metabolic rewiring, stress adaptation, DNA repair, and autophagy, reinforcing the role of yeast at the interface between cancer research and biotechnology.