Sarah Aitken
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s-j-aitken.bsky.social
Sarah Aitken
@s-j-aitken.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Pathology @yalepathology.bsky.social and #CMCO @yalecancer.bsky.social • @cancerresearchuk.org Clinician Scientist & Pathologist @cam.ac.uk • www.aitkenlab.org • #GenomicPathology • posts≠employer
Pinned
🌟NEW PREPRINT ALERT!🌟

We are very pleased to introduce #StrainDifferences: “Genetic background sets the trajectory of cancer evolution”

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧵[1/12]
Genetic background sets the trajectory of cancer evolution
Human cancers are heterogeneous. Their genomes evolve from genetically diverse germlines in complex and dynamic environments, including exposure to potential carcinogens. This heterogeneity of humans,...
www.biorxiv.org
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
The exciting next instalment of Mutations in Time and Space... Open for registration now
Explore the origins, patterns and consequences of mutations across biological systems! #MITS26

🗓️ Conference dates: 13-15 April 2026

Participate in expert-led knowledge exchange on how genome evolution shapes human health and ageing 🧬

Check out our exciting speakers ➡️ bit.ly/4hmbnyr
#Genomics
November 4, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
📢 EvoMG-DN PhD applications are now open!
Join our EU-funded MSCA network and explore evolution, ageing, and disease.
👉 www.evomg-dn.eu

📅 Apply by 30 November 2025

#PhD #DoctoralTraining #MSCA #HorizonEurope #Genomics #EvolutionaryBiology #BiomedicalResearch#EarlyCareerResearchers
October 7, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
It was an honor to take part in the @yalepathology.bsky.social research retreat today! Great science, inspiring discussions, a fun “guess who?”, and wonderful people. Huge thanks to organizers for such a great work! Can’t believe only 2 months left to enjoy this amazing #AitkenLab team ✨
Today was our first Yale Pathology Department retreat - with Klaske, Barbara, Jacob, and Vanessa (we missed you Tanuja!) Great to present our work with a poster and two talks, share ideas, and meet new people

🇨🇦🇪🇸🇬🇧🇳🇱🇺🇸🌎
@yalepathology.bsky.social @bhernando.bsky.social
October 30, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Today was our first Yale Pathology Department retreat - with Klaske, Barbara, Jacob, and Vanessa (we missed you Tanuja!) Great to present our work with a poster and two talks, share ideas, and meet new people

🇨🇦🇪🇸🇬🇧🇳🇱🇺🇸🌎
@yalepathology.bsky.social @bhernando.bsky.social
October 30, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Find out all about what's going on in Dr Coraline Mlynarczyk‬'s lab - our neighbours at #CMCO...

📽️ Exploring the interface between Immunology and Cancer

@yalepathology.bsky.social
October 26, 2025 at 8:42 PM
A trio of talks this week: Grand Rounds @jhu.edu yesterday. Then @bhernando.bsky.social (who has only been here a fortnight!) and I gave talks at the NYC Genome Integrity Discussion group @rockefeller.edu. Thanks for inviting us Agata Smogorzewska and Philipp Oberdoerffer

@yalepathology.bsky.social
October 10, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
🚨 New paper alert!

Sex and smoking bias in the selection of somatic mutations in human bladder

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

by @raquelbmi.bsky.social, @ferriol.bsky.social et al (in collaboration with Rosana Risques lab in @uwmedicine.bsky.social)
Sex and smoking bias in the selection of somatic mutations in human bladder - Nature
Sex bias and association with smoking history identified in the landscape of driver mutations and clonal expansions in normal human bladder tissue may explain the higher bladder cancer risk in men and smokers.
www.nature.com
October 8, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
Exciting 3 months ahead at the #AitkenLab @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social! 🤩

Huge thanks to @s-j-aitken.bsky.social for the warm welcome, and to @caixaresearch.bsky.social for supporting my research career at all levels ✨
🥳 Today we welcome Dr Bárbara Hernando @bhernando.bsky.social to the #AitkenLab @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social

Bárbara joins us from #CNIO as part of her @caixaresearch.bsky.social Postdoctoral Junior Leader Fellowship

@yalepathology.bsky.social @yalecancer.bsky.social @cniostopcancer.bsky.social
September 29, 2025 at 4:31 PM
🥳 Today we welcome Dr Bárbara Hernando @bhernando.bsky.social to the #AitkenLab @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social

Bárbara joins us from #CNIO as part of her @caixaresearch.bsky.social Postdoctoral Junior Leader Fellowship

@yalepathology.bsky.social @yalecancer.bsky.social @cniostopcancer.bsky.social
September 29, 2025 at 4:10 PM
A fantastic (first) Closer to Free Ride: 100 miles with friends from #NHBC, colleagues from @yalecancer.bsky.social , and a #CycloPath we met along the way. Thank you for all the sponsorship - and the support on the road!

#CTFRide @ctfride.bsky.social
The Notorious CycloPaths cycling team from the Pathology Dept. @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social ruled the roads this morning at the Closer to Free ride while raising over $25K for research at @yalecancer.bsky.social & Smilow Cancer Hospital. It was great to see David Rimm, MD, PhD, leading the team.
September 7, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Yesterday was our fourth lab-iversary 🥳

In the last year we moved to the US, welcomed new lab members at Yale and in Cambridge, mastered Transatlantic hybrid lab life, posted preprints, published others, submitted grants... Looking forward to what year five has in store!

@yalepathology.bsky.social
September 3, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
💡 Cancer cells don’t just mutate—they reorganize their DNA in 3D space.
Our new study shows how the genome’s folding pattern shifts as tumors progress, cell by cell 🧩🧬.
It’s the first 3D genome atlas of cancer progression.
Thread 👇
August 26, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Almost half way to our fundraising target - and only two weeks to go!

I'll be riding the 100 mile #CloserToFreeRide to raise money to support cancer research and patient care. Please consider donating - every penny counts!

➡️ www.rideclosertofree.org/participants...

#CTFRide @ctfride.bsky.social
August 22, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
The Sanger Excellence Fellowship is back for 2025!

Our 3 year fully funded postdoctoral position supports early-career researchers from Black heritage backgrounds.

📅 Apply by 7 Sept 2025
🔗 www.sanger.ac.uk/about/equali...

#BlackInSTEM #GenomicsResearch
July 23, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
Last but not least, if you're interested in somatic mutations, new technologies and computational genomics - we're hiring a postdoc in my brand new lab
@emblebi.bsky.social!

Reach out if interested or you have any questions, and apply here: embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...
Postdoctoral Fellow in Coorens Group
We are looking for a motivated and talented postdoctoral-level researcher with experience in genomic analyses to join the newly established Coorens group at EMBL-EBI. We study how normal cells in diff...
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com
July 3, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
The cells in our bodies constantly acquire mutations. But what are the patterns of mutations across tissues? How do mutations in normal cells lead to cancer and disease? These are questions we will tackle within the Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues (SMaHT) Network, now described in @nature.com
The Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues Network - Nature
The Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues Network aims to create a reference catalogue of somatic mosaicism across different tissues and cells within individuals.
www.nature.com
July 3, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
On Sep 6 we are riding to raise funds for cancer research and patient care.
Join the #Cyclopaths team to ride with us! Can chose 10/25/40/65/100 miles 🚴

or support the effort with a donation :)

www.rideclosertofree.org/index.cfm?fu...

www.rideclosertofree.org/index.cfm?fu...
June 29, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Together with friends and colleagues from #CMCO @yalecancer.bsky.social, @yalepathology.bsky.social, and further afield, we are the #CycloPaths

Closer to Free Ride
🚲06 September 2025
💪100 miles
#CTFRide

Join our team, spread the word, sponsor us if you can www.rideclosertofree.org/participants...
A fundraising page for Sarah Aitken
Join the Closer to Free Ride on Saturday, September 6th. Register or donate at RideCloserToFree.org.
www.rideclosertofree.org
June 27, 2025 at 4:12 PM
A great week in Lisbon at the European Association for Cancer Research 2025 Congress. Thank you @helloeacr.bsky.social for the #WomenInLeadership Workshop, the opportunity to present our #ProfferedPaper, and to talk science with collaborators (and make new ones!)

#EACR2025
June 19, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
@s-j-aitken.bsky.social comments on a live-cell tracking system that shows how DNA damage spreads unevenly through generations of cells, driving genome instability + heterogeneity potentially shaping #cancer evolution and resistance.
nature.com/articles/d41...
@yalepathology.bsky.social @nature.com
Under the microscope: DNA damage tracked through cell generations
An ingenious technique reveals how stressed cells divide to produce progeny that have different traits — a phenomenon that can initiate cancer.
nature.com
May 23, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
Does #Genetic Background Set the Trajectory of #Cancer Evolution? @s-j-aitken.bsky.social Assistant Professor of #Pathology at @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social, covered that topic at today’s @yalecancer.bsky.social Translational Science Retreat. Dr. Aitken specializes in GI & molecular pathology.
May 22, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Sarah Aitken
Lastly, many thanks to Sarah Aitken (@s-j-aitken.bsky.social) and Emma Reilly for writing a great News & Views article that summarizes our findings and puts them into perspective. You can find it here: doi.org/10.1038/d415...
Under the microscope: DNA damage tracked through cell generations
An ingenious technique reveals how stressed cells divide to produce progeny that have different traits — a phenomenon that can initiate cancer.
doi.org
May 21, 2025 at 3:27 PM
🚨New preprint!🚨

Venturing out of the nuclear genome to explore #mtDNA:

"Germline and somatic variation influence nuclear-mitochondrial crosstalk in tumourigenesis"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Led by Dr. Maëlle Daunesse and @paulflicek.bsky.social - and many other #LCEConsortium members ⬇️
Germline and somatic variation influence nuclear-mitochondrial crosstalk in tumourigenesis
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most prevalent primary liver cancer and arises from hepatocytes, which are very metabolically active and contain abundant mitochondria. Despite extensive characterisati...
www.biorxiv.org
May 5, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Four rising stars at the forefront of cancer research
- featuring #PatternSleuth @oriolpich.bsky.social 🤩

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Four rising stars at the forefront of cancer research
These scientists are coming at cancer from all angles.
www.nature.com
April 28, 2025 at 5:05 PM