Chris Bakal
@cbakal.bsky.social
Professor of Cancer Morphodynamics Institute of Cancer Research. CSO of Sentinal4D
ICR's Professor @cbakal.bsky.social & his team have developed an #AI tool that can show how cancer cells respond to new drugs, by observing changes to their 3D shape. He spoke to @lbc.co.uk News about how this will slash years off the drug development process ⬇️ www.icr.ac.uk/about-us/icr...
What if a cell’s shape was determined not just by its genes, but by the stress it's under? What if the same stress that helps a cell survive also changes its internal scaffolding, making it more rigid, polarized, and more likely to invade? And what if a single kinase was orchestrating all of this?
A #metastatic #melanoma cancer cell invading a #Collagen matrix. This particular cell is making a number of large protrusions to search its environment
I am going to send this book as a present to all those obsessed with mRNA expression these days. Perhaps they will think twice regarding the benefit of it! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
It’s time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life
The view of biology often presented to the public is oversimplified and out of date. Scientists must set the record straight, argues a new book.
nature.com
As someone said to me lately...."It's clear from the laboured metaphor that you wrote this title". 😆 That said.. I think it's important to think about some of the limitations of using #AI in analysing complex #cancer #pathology images. More explanation to follow... rdcu.be/d5VaZ
Not seeing the trees for the forest. The impact of neighbours on graph-based configurations in histopathology
rdcu.be
In the late 1700s, Luigi Galvani showed how he could make the legs of a frog twitch when touched by an electric current – starting the field of #bioelectricity. In one experiment Galvani tried to reproduce this observation by wiring a frog to a lighting rod.
Dynamical Cell Systems inFocus 2024: This year Vicky Bousgouni defended her PhD! Vicky performed colllagen hydrogel based screens ever to identify genes that regulate #melanoma invasion. She identified ARHGEF9 which is essential for melanoma to change #cellshape in 3D. https://buff.ly/4ieynjg
In May we published in #CellReports describing our study using high-throughput #lightsheet microscopy to investigate the #3D morphogenesis of melanoma cells during invasion, a process critical to #metastasis. Part of the Dynamical Cell Systems Team in-focus 2024. https://buff.ly/415jwBn
Why do some children get sick from #COVID, but not others? Here #alphaFold was used to determine how genetic variation affects the structure of the BTLN8 protein. This provided mechanistic insight as to how genetic differences leads to different responses to infection. rupress.org/jem/article/...
Heterozygous BTNL8 variants in individuals with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) | Journal of Experimental Medicine | Rockefeller University Press
Bellos et al. identify an enrichment of rare, damaging variants in BTNL8 in MIS-C patients. These variants result in impaired Vγ4+ γδ T cell engagement ass
rupress.org
Why is Biles a great gymnast? Messi the best football player? Jagger an amazing lead singer? Just by looking at still photos of them it would be impossible to figure it out. Similarly, you couldn't find the NEXT Biles, Messi, or Jagger by looking through still pictures.
These are Melanoma cells invading 3D Collagen Hydrogel. We think this is similar to how they move in a patient's body. If we can stop these #cellshape changes, we hope to stop #cancers from spreading. #filipodiafriday
In our latest work, Reed Naidoo developed #SurvivMIL, a multimodal, multiple-instance learning model designed to improve survival predictions for #neuroblastoma patients by combining Whole Slide Images (WSIs) with simple patient health data (age, sex, MYCN status). openreview.net/forum?id=7o2...
I am a #Professor at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, UK. My research aims to understand how #cancer cells change their shape to drive disease. In particular we are interested in the connection between shape, Cancer, and #inflammation. To study #cellshape we use advanced imaging and #AI.
