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Simon Richardson

@simonrichardson.bsky.social

140 followers 300 following 27 posts

Clinician Scientist and Consultant Haematologist | Researches stem cell biology, epigenetics and drug discovery, specialising in B-ALL | Fellow St Catharine's College, Cambridge

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · May 20

Delighted that our work describing a potential novel treatment approach for B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia is published today in @natcomms.nature.com‬. 🧵

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

CREBBP inactivation sensitizes B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia to ferroptotic cell death upon BCL2 inhibition - Nature Communications

CREBBP mutations in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) are linked to poor prognosis and chemoresistance. Here, the authors show that genetic or pharmacological inactivation of CREBBP sensitiz...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Simon Richardson

University of Cambridge @cam.ac.uk · 1d

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

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Reposted by Simon Richardson

Stefan Marciniak @profmarciniak.bsky.social · 2d

Great to host our new @stcatharines.bsky.social medics before their first college dinner 🩺😷🚑🩻⚕️

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · 22d

Thank you @leukaemiauk.bsky.social for the invitation to #WCD2025. 😋 It was great to share some of our work and humbling to hear the story of 4 year old Billie the Brave. Congrats on raising so much in one evening for life changing leukaemia research! ❤️

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · Sep 4

Thanks to @leukaemiauk.bsky.social for the opportunity to contribute to this amazing session. So important to link patient experiences with our science and translational research

Leukaemia UK @leukaemiauk.bsky.social · Sep 4

An incredibly inspiring and thought-provoking Q&A session with some of our John Goldman Fellows and Leukaemia UK Community Champions. ✨

@simonrichardson.bsky.social @scicambridge.bsky.social @manchester.ac.uk @uom-dcs.bsky.social

Five people are sitting in a line behind a table, forming a panel. The screen behind them features an image of a mother and child with the text, ‘Patients and researchers Q&A’.

Reposted by Simon Richardson

St Catharine's College @stcatharines.bsky.social · Aug 5

💙 Between now & the UCAS application deadline on 15 Oct, it’s worth checking if you're eligible for the Finlay Family Bursary, which covers all tuition fees & a living allowance for a St Catharine’s student from Scotland for all 3 or 4 years of an undergraduate degree: shorturl.at/K0RuE 3/3

The Finlay Family Bursary for Scottish undergraduates

We are proud to offer this bursary to encourage Scottish students to apply for, and take up, the offer of an undergraduate place at St Catharine’s – an opportunity which would normally involve greater financial cost than attending a Scottish university.

shorturl.at

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Reposted by Simon Richardson

Blood Journals' Portfolio @bloodjournals.hematology.org · Jul 30

LS, an emergent form of acute leukemia relapse after antigen-targeted therapy, primarily in B-ALL, has dismal outcomes. buff.ly/59xI6qv #hemesky

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · Jul 19

Congrats! Really exciting work.

Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · Jul 17

I feel a student granulomatous round of unknown aetiology coming on.

Reposted by Simon Richardson

Geula Hanin @geula.bsky.social · Jul 14

I’m looking for a Postdoc to join my new lab @pdncambridge.bsky.social on an MRC-funded project and explore maternal inter-organ communication with a focus on the mammary gland, using a novel mouse model.

📍 Tenure: 3 years
⏳ Deadline: 15 August 2025

Please RT 🙏
👉 www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51984/

Research Associate (Fixed Term) - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge

Research Associate (Fixed Term) in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge.

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · Jul 11

No trains? No problem! Wacky races down to The City of London with these amazing @crukcamcentre.bsky.social entrepreneurial scientists just in time for the CRUK Innovation and Enterprise awards. Thank you @crhorizons.bsky.social 🥂🎉🙏

Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · Jul 9

Absolute honour to attend Marc Mansour’s @marcmansour.bsky.social inaugural lecture at ICH today. An inspiring clinician scientist and all round legend. #researchculture

Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · Jul 7

Fabulous news Geula. Congratulations!! 🥂

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · Jul 6

Really exciting to co-organise the 20 year graduation reunion for Oxford medical school last night. Wonderful to reunite with old friends and hear retired DoS Tim Lancaster speak powerfully about how caring is at the heart of good medicine 💊❤️

Reposted by Simon Richardson

Stefan Marciniak @profmarciniak.bsky.social · Jun 13

Best night of the year !

Farewell dinner for the new doctors from @stcatharines.bsky.social

Interviewed them 7 years ago.
Watched them blossom for 6 years.
Now they’re amazing!

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · Jun 11

Thanks to the editorial team @natcomms.nature.com for including our recent paper in their Editors' Highlights in the field of Cancer Biology 🎉

Editors' Highlights | Nature Communications

Editors' Highlights

eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

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Reposted by Simon Richardson

Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · Jun 9

I wrote a new piece on how much progress has been made in treating childhood leukemia.

The answer is: quite a lot!

Before the 1970s, fewer than 10% of children diagnosed survived 5 years after diagnosis.

Now most are cured and around 85% survive that long.
ourworldindata.org/childhood-le...

Two charts present survival rates for childhood leukemia over time, specifically focusing on Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

In the top panel, for ALL, a series of curved lines represent overall survival rates plotted against years since diagnosis. The lines show a marked increase in survival rates from the late 1960s, when only 14% of children survived more than five years post-diagnosis, to around 94% in the 2010s. Key intervals are labeled, with different colors indicating different periods of diagnosis, ranging from 1972-1975 to 2010-2015.

The bottom panel illustrates survival rates for AML, which are consistently lower overall compared to ALL. Like the top graph, it features several colored lines indicating specific periods. The highest point noted indicates a survival rate of 65%. The graph captures trends in survival as well, showing gradual improvement over time, from 1975-1977 up to 2011-2017.

Data sources for these visualizations are cited at the bottom: Mignon Loh et al. (2023) for ALL and Todd M Cooper et al. (2023) for AML, both from the Children's Oncology Group. The chart is published by Our World in Data, and licensed under Creative Commons by the author, Saloni Dattani.

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · Jun 9

What an inspiring evening hearing from patients, researchers and fundraisers at an Evening with Leukaemia UK.

So much progress. So much to do
@leukaemiauk.bsky.social

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · May 24

Thanks to Chris Smith and the Naked Scientists for the invitation to discuss our work - fully clothed 🤓

www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/int...

Dual drug approach shows promise against childhood cancer

On the B-ALL...

www.thenakedscientists.com

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · May 22

And that’s a wrap. 20 supervisons in biochemistry and genetics for the Catz @stcatharines.bsky.social first year medics. Good luck in the exams!

Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · May 20

12/12 Special thanks to the patient donors and samples from VIVO Biobank and of course Brian Huntly & group 🤗 #CSCI @crukcamcentre.bsky.social | Work in my group is largely funded by Cancer Research UK #CRUK, Leukaemia UK
@leukaemiauk.bsky.social‬ and the European Hematology Association. 🙏🏻

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · May 20

11/12 Lots of thanks for help with this multidisciplinary project, including to stellar PhD Alicia Garcia-Gimenez and RA Jon Ditcham for all their hard work | to amazing collaborators @koulman.bsky.social @mitoredox.bsky.social @marcmansour.bsky.social

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · May 20

10/12 Excitingly, the CREBBP inhibitor Inobrodib has already been tested in combination with Venetoclax in AML, confirming safety. We therefore think this could be a novel, safe, oral approach that could complement current chemo- and immunotherapies, improving outcomes and reducing toxicity.

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Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · May 20

9/12 The results almost perfectly replicated the findings in our genetic model, confirming marked sensitisation or synergy between CREBBP and BCL2 inhibitors in cell line and PDX models in vitro and in vivo.

Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · May 20

8/12 Only 20% of patient have a CREBBP mutation at relapse, yet this is a very strong mechanism. We therefore tested whether pharmacological inhibitors of CREBBP can sensitise B-ALL to Venetoclax, irrespective of genetic subtype.

Simon Richardson @simonrichardson.bsky.social · May 20

7/12 Interestingly, these changes can also be seen in patients – TARGET RNAseq data showed that low expression of CREBBP strongly correlates with dysregulation of ether-linked lipid pathways and up-regulation of redox scavengers.