Nuria Lopez-Bigas
@nlbigas.bsky.social
3.3K followers 1.1K following 35 posts
ICREA Research Professor at IRB Barcelona. Working on computational cancer genomics. Leading @bbglab.bsky.social http://bbglab.irbbarcelona.org
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Reposted by Nuria Lopez-Bigas
ferriol.bsky.social
Very excited to share our new paper on the influence of biological sex and smoking in the clonal landscape of normal human bladder, just published in Nature.
A big thank you and congrats to all the authors, specially to @raquelbmi.bsky.social for all the shared efforts in this journey!

⬇️More info⬇️
Reposted by Nuria Lopez-Bigas
raquelbmi.bsky.social
Very happy to share that our paper on the influence of biological sex and smoking in the clonal landscape of the normal human bladder is out today in Nature. Kudos to all the authors and especially to @ferriol.bsky.social for coming along with me during this project's journey!

🧵Summary following ⬇️
nlbigas.bsky.social
This was only possible thanks to the work of many people and countless discussions, but especially thanks to the generosity of the donors and their families.
nlbigas.bsky.social
With the large number of mutations detected with duplex sequencing in normal tissue, we are approaching Natural Saturation Mutagenesis. And this allows us to compute positive selection at subgenic resolution, even per residue.
nlbigas.bsky.social
Few years ago we published a paper titled “In silico saturation mutagenesis of cancer genes” www.nature.com/articles/s41... in which we used mutations in thousands of tumors to build machine learning models that can identify all driver mutations in cancer genes.
In silico saturation mutagenesis of cancer genes - Nature
A new computational approach to in silico mutagenesis screening allow comprehensive mapping of cancer driver mutations.
www.nature.com
nlbigas.bsky.social
We also found a significantly increased number of TERT promoter activating mutations among smokers (ex- and current) above 55 years old.
nlbigas.bsky.social
Part of this variability is due to differences in selection between males and females, specifically on truncating mutations in RBM10, ARID1A and CDKN1A, which appear to provide stronger advantage to urothelium cells in males.
nlbigas.bsky.social
The unprecedented number of mutations per gene per sample together with the development of new analysis tools allowed us to compute the magnitude of positive selection on the mutations of each gene in each sample. This revealed a landscape of extensive interindividual variability in the cohort.
nlbigas.bsky.social
➡️ Most genes in the panel show strong signals of positive selection
➡️ Truncating mutations in FGFR3 are under negative selection
➡️ Activating mutations in the TERT promoter are under strong positive selection in normal bladder
nlbigas.bsky.social
With this approach we find thousands of somatic mutations in the normal urothelium of 45 individuals, many more than those seen in bladder tumors sequenced over two decades

Each tumor is a clone, but in normal tissue, with this approach we can detect mutations in hundreds of clones in each sample
nlbigas.bsky.social
➡️ We collected cytobrush samples from the top and the bottom of the bladder urothelium of 45 individuals during autopsy

➡️ We identified somatic mutations in 16 genes (around 5,000x) using ultra-deep error-corrected duplex sequencing

➡️ We studied clonal diversity across individuals
nlbigas.bsky.social
Human somatic tissues evolve as mosaics of competing clones driven by mutations. Most of these clones do not result in cancer, but some of them can constitute the first steps of the trajectory towards a malignant tumor. What influences this evolution in each tissue remains unknown.
nlbigas.bsky.social
congratulations to all the team 👏
Reposted by Nuria Lopez-Bigas
raquelbmi.bsky.social
Back after a few days in Lisbon for the annual #EACR2025 conference! Inspiring and great science. Glad for the opportunity to present our work, coming home with a bunch of new ideas! @bbglab.bsky.social @ferriol.bsky.social
Reposted by Nuria Lopez-Bigas
jeffreytownsend.bsky.social
@ewaszczurek.bsky.social explains how evolution is the generative process of cancer at #AACR25.
Ewa Sczurek presenting slides at a lectern on a podium.
Reposted by Nuria Lopez-Bigas
jeffreytownsend.bsky.social
Jeffrey Townsend (that's me!) presents on dismantling the coarse approximation of drivers and passengers in cancer at #AACR25.

Thank you @nlbigas.bsky.social for the photo!
Reposted by Nuria Lopez-Bigas
jeffreytownsend.bsky.social
@nlbigas.bsky.social explains how they assemble a compenduim of driver genes 🧬 in cancer at #AACR25.
Nuria Bigas-Lopez presents at a podium
nlbigas.bsky.social
I hope you are getting better. I also listened a couple of years ago Project Hail Mary and loved it! Probably you have already read/listen The Martian, if not, also highly recommended.
Reposted by Nuria Lopez-Bigas
cgiclinics.bsky.social
We're at #CCG2025 in Amsterdam! Project Coordinator @nlbigas.bsky.social is delivering a keynote lecture on the CGI-Clinics project today, 'Data-driven cancer genome interpretation for clinical decision making': www.ccg2025.eu/speaker/nuri...