Now online in Cancer Discovery @aacrjournals.bsky.social: The Molecular and Functional Landscape of Resistance to FOLFIRI Chemotherapy in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer - by Marco Avolio, Simonetta Leto, Andrea Bertotti, Livio Trusolino, and colleagues doi.org/10.1158/2159...

Heads up: ignore samtools dot org, similarly minimap2 dot com and likely others. It's owned by a known phishing site and while the binaries they offer look valid currently (but note they may be serving us different binaries to others), that could change.

Ie: it's not us (Samtools team)! Be warned

Proud of Sofia who is presenting our fight vs scRNA with GNN and GRN at CIBB2025.

Finally, we are OPEN! meetings.embo.org/event/26-can.... You dont' want to miss this one. Capped at 180 partecipants, so register super early to avoid disappointment. Amazing speakers, incredible location and the best vibe. Come to learn, share, discuss and enjoy some of the most exciting ideas.

🚀 WE'RE BACK! "The Many Faces of Cancer Evolution" is coming back to Rimini on May 27-29, 2026! meetings.embo.org/event/26-can... Join me, Luca @magnanilab.bsky.social , Celine Vallot, and Samra @turajliclab.bsky.social for 3 days of amazing science on the beach! @embo.org meeting #cancer 👇👇

Stay connected during #BITS2025!
Use the hashtag and tag us in your posts 🧬

We’re on:
🔹 X → x.com/BITS_bioinf
🔹 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/company/bioinformatics-italian-society-bits
🔹 BlueSky → bsky.app/profile/bits-bioinf.bsky.social

(7/7) If you want to know more about how we measured MRs, compared them with computationally inferred ones and validated our results thanks to the Genomics England Research Network: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@sottoriva.bsky.social @genomicsengland.bsky.social

(6/7) Our data suggest tumors evolve toward higher mutation rates over time - this will impact how drug response and resistance are modelled. Moreover shifts in mutational signatures before vs after tumor initiation may offer a way to 'carbon-date' tumors.

(5/7) We also discovered that the mutational processes at play during cancer growth are different from the ones in normal cells - the mutational signatures detected during the accumulation period are different from the ones seen in bulk tumors.

(4/7) It turned out each tumor has its own specific MR and the differences in MRs among MSS tumors are as large as the ones between MSS and MSI. Moreover, earlier lesions have lower mutation rates than later ones of the same patient.

(3/7) Using colorectal cancer clonal organoids we set up a Mutation Accumulation experiment, where we performed a WGS at the beginning and the end of six months of growth and identified the newly accumulated mutations.

(2/7) We decided to directly measure the Mutation Rate (MR) in colorectal tumors, to understand if MSS tumors really do accumulate few SNVs at homogeneous rates and check whether in silico models that estimate MR are trustworthy.

(1/7) Our paper on how fast colorectal tumors accumulate mutations is finally out (and on the STM cover! @science.org )

This is pretty depressing - why OpenSNP, a company with a data-centric belief that genetic data would be a key driver for improving human health and medicine, will close (and delete all of its data) opensnp.wordpress.com. Turns out the biggest users were law enforcement and govt, not labs or pharma.

The Woodstock of Biology 2 + Nightscience conference is going to be out of this world.
#theconferencetoendallconferences - Register NOW while it's still possible: woodstock.img.cas.cz

Weekly read: www.nature.com/articles/s41... lessons on phenotypic evolution, genetically or environmentally driven, from E.Coli.

Friends! The science that we love is under threat. World-wide, there're forces seeking to make it corporate-like, focused on deliverables, or even the enemy of society. Take a stand & celebrate science & music! #theconferencetoendallconferences - Registration starts NOW!
woodstock.img.cas.cz

I really enjoy reading "Evolution Evolving", really mind-opening and beautifully written
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
@kevinlala.bsky.social

What a fantastic conference we’ve had this week in Lyon, shining the spotlight on the rapidly evolving area of research that is cancer persister cells. Thank you to all participants, speakers and our wonderful Scientific Programme Committee 🤩

Weekly read: www.nature.com/articles/s41... - about the role of EMT in PDAC het-evol and (another) evidence of cell-state-specific mutational processes.

Before (beer to fuel the body) and after (climb to destroy it) a super intensive conference on cancer/bacterial persisters. Lots of interesting talks, interactive sessions and fruitful posters discussions. @helloeacr.bsky.social