We have an exciting program prepared for the 2023 Stem Cell Niche meeting sponsored by Novo Nordisk Foundation. Attendees are in for a treat. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more information in the next couple of weeks.

Wow!!! Untangling mutant clonal competition made easier! Certain epithelial tissues can be maintained ex vivo for a whole year! No passaging... They just keep going reproducing in vivo 3D architecture! Astonishing right? It has been exciting to play my part in this project

📢We are HIRING a computational postdoc! Are you passionate about combining computational approaches to understand stem cell plasticity, regeneration and ageing?💻🔬🧫 Join our thriving interdisciplinary community. In collaboration with Rulands Group jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/41989/

This is the absolute best bunch of people one could ever wish to have by their side. Maria Alcolea lab + AntoranLab #preretreat #grateful #cambridgelife

Come and join us! Great opportunity for a computational biologist to explore epithelial plasticity during aging #universityofcambridge #postdoc #Bioinformatics

Check this out! Computational postdoc position in Alcolea's team 🧬 #universityofcambridge

Still time to APPLY!! Computational postdoc position in my lab! We are looking for you! Deadline 13th August.

🎙️Congratulations Greta Skrupskelyte on winning second runner up prize in the Animals category of our Wellbeing Calendar Photography Competition! Thank you for your beautiful entry. Calendar coming 2024! #wellbeing #winner #CambridgeUniversity

We are looking for a Biomedical Research Technician to join our lab at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. Apply before the 10th March! #CambridgeStemCell #jobalert jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/45169/

Did you know that not all newly forming tumours persist long-term? If you are intrigued to know what determines the survival of early tumours, check out our latest preprint! Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, PDN Cambridge. Work led by Greta Skrupskelyte and @ lr 🧵1/8 biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh…

2/8 We investigate what sets apart the tumours that remain long-term in the tissue from those that are eliminated. A crucial question to understand the early events in tumorigenesis, with implications for developing new preventive and therapeutic strategies.

3/8-We combine single-cell RNA sequencing and cell communication analysis, with lineage tracing, 3D heterotypic cultures, as well as in vivo grafting assays to identify the unique features of the few nascent tumours that avoid elimination, and survive long-term.

4/8-We demonstrate that surviving tumours are characterised by a stress-related epithelial state (marked by high SOX9 expression) that promotes mesenchymal mobilization and ECM remodelling via EFG signalling.

5/8-This leads to the formation of a fibrotic pre-cancer tumour niche that, in turn, feeds back on the epithelium promoting the growth and long-term survival of nascent tumours.

6/8-Remarkably, heterotypic in vitro and in vivo experiments, combining healthy epithelium and tumour stroma, demonstrate that the pre-cancerous niche alone is sufficient to confer tumour properties to epithelial cells. Perpetuating the tumour phenotype beyond genetic alterations

7/8-Blocking epithelial-mesenchymal communication by either knocking-down SOX9 expression in the epithelium, or blocking fibronectin fibrillogenesis, which interferes with ECM assembly, hinders tumour survival and significantly reduces the tumour burden.

8/8- Big thanks to all authors Yiteng Dang, Seungmin Han, Maria Teresa Bejar, Bartomeu Colom, JC Fowler & Phil Jones Wellcome Sanger Institute, Rulands Group Universität München, and Ben Simons Gurdon Institute. And major funders Wellcome, The Royal Society, Medical Research Council, Worldwide Cancer Research, Guts UK Charity

Together with lr and co in Maria Alcolea group, we determine the survival of micro-tumours! Check out our latest preprint! biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… Cambridge Stem Cell Institute PDN Cambridge

This study could not have been performed without the amazing collaboration between our lab and theoretical biologists from Ben Simons group Gurdon Institute, and biophysicists from Otger Campas lab Campàs Lab. We are so grateful to our fantastic colleagues cell.com/cell/fulltext/…