Irene Cantone
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cantoneirene.bsky.social
Irene Cantone
@cantoneirene.bsky.social
Scientist, leader and carer. System biology, Epigenetics, Pluripotency, Immunology but mostly eXIST! Wondering why men and women are so different. Marie-Curie, EMBO, HFSP alumnus. Tenure Associate Prof/Group Leader. Editor ScienceAdvances. Mamma di Sofia!
Pinned
Our first #immunology paper is out! We show that Tregs with FOXP3 splicing variants retaining exon 2 are a prognostic marker for breast cancer www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
CD4+FOXP3Exon2+ regulatory T cell frequency predicts breast cancer prognosis and survival
FOXP3E2+ Treg enrichment reflects an increased tumor-immune suppression and predicts prognosis in breast cancer.
www.science.org
Reposted by Irene Cantone
Only 6 days left to apply! We’re recruiting a PhD student to study the immunogenic roles of transposable elements in pediatric AML. The project involves working with clinical trial samples in collaboration with Dr. Richard Dillon (KCL). If interested, get in touch!
Come and join us to discover immunogenic potential of transposable elements in pediatric AML as part of CRUK CoL PhD programme.
We're offering two fantastic #PhD projects in #paediatric cancers, to start Sept 2026. Browse all our projects and apply by noon, Weds 5 Nov: https://www.colcc.ac.uk/cyp-phd-studentships/ @qmbci.bsky.social @kingslsm.bsky.social @uclmedsci.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk #CRUKFunded
October 30, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Advice needed: can you distinguish splicing variants by commercial #spatialtranscriptomic (eg visium)? #singlecell #omics
October 13, 2025 at 9:58 AM
The #Nobel prize has been assigned to the discovery of #Treg peripheral tolerance. We are humbly greatful for this discovery as we recently described a subtype of Tregs associated with worse breast cancer prognosis
October 9, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
Myelin pathology is a key feature of X-linked Dystonia Parkinsonism https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.07.680990v1
October 8, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
How does a “universal” transcription factor evolve to do species-specific jobs?
Our new preprint reveals how divergence in TBP’s domains shapes transcriptional specialization across eukaryotes.

Read it here 👉

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#MolecularEvolution #Transcription
Molecular determinants underlying functional divergence of TBP homologs
The TATA-box binding protein (TBP) is a highly conserved basal transcription factor and a core component of the pre-initiation complex (PIC) for all three eukaryotic RNA polymerases (RNA Pols). Despit...
www.biorxiv.org
October 7, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
It is with great sadness that the University shares the news of the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon, founder of the @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social

Read our tribute to the visionary Nobel Laureate and watch an interview from 2012, just after he won: https://bit.ly/4mM8o3r
October 7, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
Very excited to share our very exciting story on how misinherited chromatin affects individual cells to cause a behavior defect in C. elegans (a thread👇) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
October 7, 2025 at 2:43 PM
#Xcromosome paper on the role of the #human specific long noncoding RNA #XACT!
Upregulation of the lncRNA XACT sustains pluripotency, blocks lineage specification, and drives germ cell tumor-like transcriptional programs in human pluripotent stem cells https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.02.679492v1
October 3, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
Chromatin is a long-range force generator that regulates plasma membrane tension and cell integrity independently of gene expression https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.02.680155v1
October 3, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
See this? This = implanting mouse embryo. Usually this happens inside its mother and is invisible to us, but we can actually watch implantation ex vivo with the hope of understanding why implantation goes awry in embryos of older women. A 🧵...
October 1, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
❓Can a father’s environmental exposures before conception influence their offspring?

We systematically tackled this - identifying effects of paternal age, environment and genetics on early embryos - as well as confounding influences

www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Embryonic signatures of intergenerational epigenetic inheritance across paternal environments and genetic backgrounds | The EMBO Journal
imageimagePaternal environmental exposures have been linked with modulation of phenotype and disease risk in offspring via largely unclear mechanisms. This study employs in vitro fertilization and sin...
www.embopress.org
September 27, 2025 at 7:28 AM
To the #XchromosomeInactivation field: anyone knows Xist is a long #noncodingRNA Which publication has ruled out that there are protein coding regions within it? And how?
April 10, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
#Postdoc openings: we investigate #chromatin mediated #epigenetic mechanisms underlying #sexdifferences and #sexbias in #human #diseases including #immune and #cancer. If u want to join us, we can help you preparing #HFSP #EMBO #MarieCurie fellowships. DM or email (publications needed!)
April 12, 2024 at 9:33 AM
The story of sex determination from a woman’s life perspective. Beautiful thread for #WomenInternationalDay
This #InternationalWomensDay I want to tell the story of Lilian Vaughan Morgan. I learned of Lilian this past year - what a badass.

Lilian was a leading scientist when women weren't welcome in the lab, nor even the department. But she contributed immensely to the genetics of sex determination

1/n
March 8, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
One of the most powerful moments of the day came from Emily Whitehead who told the story of how she was the first pediatric patient to receive CAR T-cell therapy for her leukemia at age 5: “I stand up for science because science saved my life. And that’s a fact.” @standupforscience.bsky.social
March 8, 2025 at 1:18 PM
A #computational #Postdoc position is available in my lab to dive into #chromatin mediated #epigenetic mechanisms underlying #autoimmune reactions in #MultipleSclerosis! Please circulate
March 7, 2025 at 6:18 PM
FUNDED! I will be recruiting soon a computational #postdoc. If you fancy working on exceptional #singlecell #omics datasets to explore the role of #XChromosomeInactivation in the #sexdifferences of #autoimmune diseases contact me! Predoc fellows with prior experience are also invited to apply!
a drawing of a tree with a heart shaped trunk and two books with the letters x and y on them .
ALT: a drawing of a tree with a heart shaped trunk and two books with the letters x and y on them .
media.tenor.com
February 13, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Happy #womenInSTEM day!
February 11, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Our university has hoghlighted our recent work on #Treg and breast #cancer. Italian only www.unina.it/-/66774917-l...
La strada dell’immunoterapia per combattere il tumore alla mammella | In Ateneo
I risultati di uno studio condotto da Cnr-Ieos e Federico II su “Science Advances"
www.unina.it
February 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Get in touch if you are passionate for science and want to learn more about #epigenetic of sex differences in human disease www.embo.org/funding/fell...
Fellowships, grants and career support – Postdoctoral Fellowships – EMBO
Supporting internationally mobile postdoctoral researchers in Europe and around the world
www.embo.org
January 26, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
We are hiring! 3-year BBSRC-funded postdoc position available. TEs, epigenetics, pregnancy: if you love one or more of these keywords, apply through the link below.
Please spread the word.
Postdoctoral Research Associate - QMUL Jobs
ID: 4897. Title: Postdoctoral Research Associate . Application Deadline:
qmul-jobs.tal.net
January 21, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Our first #immunology paper is out! We show that Tregs with FOXP3 splicing variants retaining exon 2 are a prognostic marker for breast cancer www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
CD4+FOXP3Exon2+ regulatory T cell frequency predicts breast cancer prognosis and survival
FOXP3E2+ Treg enrichment reflects an increased tumor-immune suppression and predicts prognosis in breast cancer.
www.science.org
January 17, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
We often speak about chromatin as being accessible or inaccessible, but what does it mean? We wrote a short review on this, 🔬 focused:

sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A big thank you to Tom Fillot for his efforts on this and to
@hansen_lab

@marcelonollmann
for their help as editors.
December 20, 2024 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Irene Cantone
🚨🚨🚨
Call is now open!!! Deadline approaching...
Wanna become our new beloved colleague and be part of a stimulating (and friendly) scientific community ??? We are perfectly located in beautiful Paris with exciting work environment and state-of-the-art core facilities
APPLY 👇👇👇👇👇
December 19, 2024 at 8:09 PM