Pleased that I have been awarded a Professorship grant from the UK Academy of Medical Sciences - to support new directions for the lab using #zebrafish models of #melanoma. And congrats to the other awardees Philip Shaw from King's College London and Mark Dewey from Oxford.

A really nice Research Briefing on Miranda's @mrndhntr.bsky.social paper. Check it out here: doi.org/10.1038/d415...

Thanks Johanna!

And a special thanks to our many collaborators and funding from the @melanomaresearch.bsky.social‬, @NIH_CommonFund, @theNCI and @ludwigcancer.bsky.social‬

My favorite part? This was driven by Miranda’s curiosity. She noticed that the cells in the tumor looked squeezed, and then followed the trail all the way to mechanism and implications.

The implications are pretty clear: while DNA mutations and chemical signals from the environment are important, physical pressure is just as important in letting cancer cells take on new behaviours.

Using a combination of #zebrafish and human #melanoma cells, she discovered that when cells are mechanically confined, this turns up chromatic factors like HMGB2, rewiring them to be more invasive and drug resistant.

Cancer cells are notoriously plastic, but what triggers the changes in cell state? In our new Nature (@nature.com)‬ paper, Miranda Hunter (@mrndhntr.bsky.social‬) found that mechanical pressure is a key to this switch. Check it out here: go.nature.com/47iwDm2

Hey everyone - the annual SMR #melanoma meeting in beautiful Amsterdam is coming up. Always a fantastic lineup of research spanning basic, translational and clinical. We also have a great trainee "pre-SMR" meeting, with top talks being selected for the main meeting. Join us! smrcongress.org

Zebrafish people! The @ZDMSociety annual meeting is in Boston this year, with a great lineup. Abstract submission is closing May 27th. Go register now for this always fun conference #zebrafish www.zdmsociety.org/zdm18-home

Spots still available for the Cancer epigenetics meeting hosted by @ludwigcancer.bsky.social at Oxford @ox.ac.uk. Amazing lineup of speakers including Craig Thompson, Scott Lowe, Caroline Bartman and many others. Info here - register soon!: ludwigoxfordepicancer2025.my.canva.site

For #zebrafish people - we have a joint @ZDMSociety @InfoIzfs webinar focused on single-cell tech coming up on February 20th. Featuring Yinan Wan, Jialin Liu and Loic Royer. Register here: www.izfs.org/education/we...

Orthogonal RNA replication enables directed evolution and Darwinian adaptation in mammalian cells - Nature Chemical Biology An orthogonal alphaviral RNA replication system with chemically inducible control of RNA mutagenesis enables RNA-based directed evolution in mammalian cells.

Synthetic biology meets Darwinian evolution. This new paper shows how you can do directed "evolution campaigns" using mutation of RNA rather than DNA: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Could we do this in vivo in #zebrafish ?

The 2024 generation - Nature Cancer Twelve early-career researchers who embarked on their independent research paths in 2024 reflect on their experience from their journey so far, describe the opportunities they received and the challen...

For my first ever post on @bsky.app, check out this piece about starting a new lab (one of the most bewildering experiences). See how my former postdoc
@shruthy_suresh describes her first year: nature.com/articles/s43.... Honest but optimistic, exactly how I have always known her to be!