Wei-Ting Lu
@weitinglu.bsky.social
180 followers 490 following 23 posts
Tea addict and scientist, in that order. Incoming Group Leader, Dept of Oncology, University of Oxford. All views my own.
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weitinglu.bsky.social
I am delighted to announce that I am starting my lab next month in @oncology.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk It is such a privilege to be a part of this storied institution!
Also, we are hiring - if chromosomal instability and cancer biology excite you, come join the fun!
Job Specification: lnkd.in/e8-3hyfr
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Reposted by Wei-Ting Lu
aphillippy.bsky.social
🚂 The T2T train keeps rolling: "The formation and propagation of human Robertsonian chromosomes" with Gerton and Garrison labs is out! What's a Robertsonian chromosome? Let Jen tell you herself in this great video, or read our paper: [1/3]
📺 youtu.be/JmlY5omxQVc
📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
How Stowers Scientists Found the DNA Site Where Robertsonian Chromosomes Fuse
YouTube video by Stowers Institute for Medical Research
youtu.be
weitinglu.bsky.social
I am delighted to announce that I am starting my lab next month in @oncology.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk It is such a privilege to be a part of this storied institution!
Also, we are hiring - if chromosomal instability and cancer biology excite you, come join the fun!
Job Specification: lnkd.in/e8-3hyfr
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
Reposted by Wei-Ting Lu
eileenparkes.bsky.social
Using snRNA-sequencing (Izar lab @columbiauniversity.bsky.social) with matched multiplex immunophenotypic profiling (@jleslie1.bsky.social) we found tumor cell-intrinsic innate immune activation and intratumoral myeloid infiltration as phenotypic consequences of ongoing micronucleation in EAC. 7/11
Image shows cell types which correlate with increasing chromosomal instability (myeloid populations dominate) and representative images of inflamed, CINhigh tumor and a CINlow tumor
Reposted by Wei-Ting Lu
cancerresearchuk.org
Wei-ting Lu presents data from the TRACERx lung cancer study on FAT1 alterations and chromosomal instability.

#AACR2025 | @weitinglu.bsky.social | @crick.ac.uk
weitinglu.bsky.social
I got an idea to make you feel *worse* 🙃🙃-- read Michael Lewis's the fifth risk.
weitinglu.bsky.social
The biggest nemesis of live microscopy is light toxicity. The success rate for mitotic imaging is painfully low because one has to balance resolution vs cell death – either you have a blurry movie or a high-resolution movie showing a dead cell. 3/4
weitinglu.bsky.social
The cover is designed by Jeroen at Phsopho Animation,
who converted a mitotis time-lapse movie into some awesome cover art. One can see that chromosomes (white) align and then pulled apart by tubulin (red) as the cell divides, showing lagging chromosomes and chromosomal bridges. 2/4
weitinglu.bsky.social
We’re thrilled to see our research has been highlighted as the cover of NCB this month 🎉 🎉. We are honoured to share this issue with thought-provoking articles investigating multiple aspects of chromosomal instability and mitosis @dfachinetti.bsky.social
@thecesarelab.bsky.social 🧵 1/4
natcellbio.nature.com
👋🏿Happy new year and our first 2025 issue's out!
Cover: #chromosomal instability in #cancer

👉Review on #TranscriptionFactors and #cell quiescence
🔬#heterochromatin #embryo #DNArepair #pluripotency #proteostasis #obesity #CellCycle #CellDeath & more!

www.nature.com/ncb/volumes/...
weitinglu.bsky.social
Finally, a huge thank you to all our funders without which our work would not be possible @crick.ac.uk, Genomics England, @cancerresearchuk.org, @uclh.bsky.social @bcrfcure.bsky.social, Danish Cancer Society, UCL Cancer Institute and @cruk-cityoflondon.bsky.social. 13/14
weitinglu.bsky.social
We thank all our collaborators @mcclellandlab.bsky.social @taponlab.bsky.social @kfugger.bsky.social @nicky Mcgranahan, Nicholas Birbak, Kevin Litchfield and Mariam Jamal-Hanjani. Thank you to the patients and their families, without which we would not be able to start this project. 12/14
weitinglu.bsky.social
This would not be possible w/o the bioinformatics input of @jrmblack.bsky.social @oriolpich.bsky.social Chris Bailey @ruizc.bsky.social, Paco Gimeno-Valiente, Ieva Usaite, Kerstin Thol, Maise Al Bakir & Dhruva Biswas who are dedicated to integrating real-life data with experimental results. 11/14
weitinglu.bsky.social
This work is co-led by @weitinglu.bsky.social and @nnennayakanu.bsky.social lab, with significant input from our long-term collaborator Jiri Bartek . @panoszalmas.bsky.social and high throughput screening core @crick.ac.uk were instrumental in starting this project. 10/14
weitinglu.bsky.social
Now, which of the FAT1 KO phenotypes are due to YAP1 localization? By depleting YAP1 in FAT1 KO cells, we could fully rescue the cytokinesis failure in FAT1 KO. cells, suggesting this is YAP1 dependent. However, the ⏫mitotic error rate was not dependent on YAP1 dysregulation 9/14
weitinglu.bsky.social
How does FAT1 loss lead to its phenotype? We noticed that similar to another key member of the Hippo🦛 pathway LATS1, FAT1 depletion enhances YAP1 nuclear signal. Perhaps LATS1/2 loss contribute to the DDR defects and the phenotypes might be somehow dependent on YAP1? 8/14
weitinglu.bsky.social
How does FAT1 loss cause WGD? Using the FUCCI system in RPE1 cells (thanks to John Diffley lab @crick.ac.uk ) we could track the fidelity of cell division in real-time. The cell without FAT1 failed cytokinesis, could not finish mitosis and remained as 1 daughter cell with 2x the genome content 7/14
weitinglu.bsky.social
We also used live cell imaging to quantify mitotic errors. 6/14
weitinglu.bsky.social
Focusing on CIN, FAT1 loss increased micronuclei formation. FAT1mutant tumours exhibited a higher mutational burden. FAT1 depletion increased ⏫ chromosome number and ⏫radial chromosome structures (blue arrows) and we also observed an⏫ rate of mitotic defects. 5/14
weitinglu.bsky.social
Experimentally, FAT1 depletion reduced ⏬end-resection at DNA double-strand breaks, ⏬HR repair and alternative end-joining, but did not affect cNHEJ. Using TCGA and TRACERx data, we confirmed that FAT1mutant tumours exhibited hallmarks of HR deficiencies like TAI and LST. 4/14
weitinglu.bsky.social
We devised 2 screens to identify drivers that might contribute to both deficiencies in the DNA damage response (DDR) and cause CIN. We focused on a gene called FAT1 (4q35.2), which is extensively mutated/lost in NSCLC before WGD, but we knew little about its function. 3/14