TP53 and cancer: In addition, recent research has shown that p53 plays a significant role in metabolic regulation by inhibiting aerobic glycolysis while promoting mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and that the disruption of p53 function leads to the ‘Warburg effect,’ which is an enhanced conversion of glucose to lactate in cancer cells (Vousden and Ryan, 2009b; Berkers et al., 2013; Kung and Murphy, 2016).