Ángel Álvarez-Prado

Tumor-derived CD13 helps cancer cells colonize the brain A new study published in Cell Reports shows that cancer cells activate CD13 to gain a foothold in the brain, long before tumors are established.

Tumor-derived CD13 helps cancer cells colonize the brain
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Led by @lbejarano.bsky.social w/ many wonderful collaborators in @joycelab.bsky.social and in Lausanne 🙌

@cp-cellreports.bsky.social
@fbm-unil.bsky.social
@unil.bsky.social
@ludwigcancer.bsky.social

Article: www.cell.com/cell-reports...

A big thank you to @embo.org for supporting our lab, we’re equally honoured and thrilled to be part of the EMBO family! 🤩🤩🤩 The IG grant will allow us to continue building our research program on immuno-oncology and hopefully contribute to improving care for patients with brain cancer 🧫🔬

Yet another great reason to live in Europe!!

Multilingualism protects against accelerated aging 😀

An analysis of aging in >86,000 participants across 27 European countries

Amoruso et al, Nature Aging 🧪⏳

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Biological Laboratory | LEGO® Ideas This is a two-floor realistic Biological Laboratory building. In this design, I try to tell stories about biologists, introduce biology concepts to general publ…

I just made an account and voted for this biology laboratory made of LEGO to "promote biological research and inspire more people into the world of biology". They need 10K votes. Reposting and/or voting below would be helpful. 🤗
beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

Seguro que sí! 🙃

Super interesting, congrats Cristian and co-authors! 🤩

Tertiary Lymphoid Structures Across Organs: Context, Composition, and Clinical Levers Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) arise in non-lymphoid tissues in response to persistent antigen stimulation and chronic inflammation. Spanning organs from lung and liver to meninges, skin, and be...

So happy to share that our review in #ImmunolRev is finally out! 😃 We discuss how the immune system builds specialized TLSs across organs and conditions. Huge thanks to @StephanGuillaume, @iannaconelab.bsky.social & @linterman.bsky.social for this collaboration!
dx.doi.org/10.1111/imr.70063

A team led by Ludwig Lausanne’s @johannajoyce.bsky.social & former postdoc @alvarezprado.bsky.social reports a potential drug target whose loss in certain GBM cells triggers antiviral alarms to stall cell proliferation & makes GBM tumors in mice more amenable to anti-cancer immunity.
bit.ly/4nhZ7Bj

Legend David Baltimore died yesterday. He understood the way things should work: "the real contribution of MIT is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It takes ideas seriously, but the people are relatively informal. They are not self-aggrandizing the way academics can be."

Thank you Johanna! :)

I’m beyond thrilled to announce that we’ve been awarded the ERC Starting Grant! 🥳🥳🥳

This exceptional support will let us look into how ageing and genetic variation shape responses to therapy against brain metastatic tumors 🧠

Let’s go! 🤩

#ERCStG #Ageing #Immunogenomics #BrainMetastasis

How can we reawaken the body’s own anti-viral defenses to fight brain cancer?

Delighted to share our new study where we now answer this question, led by the brilliant @alvarezprado.bsky.social who is now an independent PI at LIH Luxembourg 👏👏

#BrainTIME 🧠🦠🧪
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www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cancer cell and microenvironmental rewiring by ADAR1 loss impairs glioblastoma tumor growth and extends survival Álvarez-Prado et al. report that targeting ADAR1 triggers cancer-cell-intrinsic anti-proliferative mechanisms and fosters anti-tumoral immune responses, blocking tumor growth and extending survival in...

Can we exploit anti-viral immunity to treat brain cancer? 🦠 🧠

Our last results suggest so, go ahead and check the paper if you’re curious! 🤓

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

#Brain_cancer #Glioblastoma #TumorMicroenvironment #RNAsensing #ADAR1

Barcoded Rabies In Situ Connectomics for high-throughput reconstruction of neural circuits Sequencing of oligonucleotide barcodes holds promise as a high-throughput approach for reconstructing synaptic connectivity at scale. Rabies viruses can act as a vehicle for barcode transmission, than...

Great technique from my @crick.ac.uk colleagues in @petrznam.bsky.social lab

Reconstructing neural circuits with barcoded Rabies virus & in situ sequencing

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

What a wonderful week we’ve had here together in Lisbon for #EACR2025! Thank you to everyone who attended, presented at and helped organise this fantastic event. Sign up here for updates about EACR 2026 in Budapest… 👀 eacr.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=...

Good to have some measurable readouts supporting something which was already obvious… #mass_surveillance #AI #computer-vision

90% of doing science is being open to new ideas.

Invasion of the ‘journal snatchers’: the firms that buy science publications and turn them rogue Study finds dozens of journals that have hiked their fees and started churning out papers after being acquired by small, recently formed companies.

Yet another reason to rethink the current publication system towards an alternative which prioritises publishing reliable science over profit, protects scientists and their research and values the work we all do to communicate new knowledge. We can, but do we want to? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

On the cover: The blood-brain barrier is a defining feature of brain tumors, shaping their biology and therapeutic response. In this issue, Bejarano et al. use single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial analysis to construct a vascular atlas of primary and metastatic brain tumors, revealing distinct alterations in endothelial and mural cells. Glioblastomas undergo substantial vascular remodeling compared to low-grade gliomas, while brain metastases exhibit even greater permeability and increased immune cell interactions. This unveiling of vascular heterogeneity is depicted as a red pencil coloring in the intricate details of tumor-associated blood vessels within a map of the human brain wherein a tumor is surrounded by diverse immune cells. Image by Joana C. Carvalho.

Excited to see our image on the cover of #Immunity today 🤩

Congrats to the amazing @lbejarano.bsky.social & all authors for our #brain #tumor #vasculature study

www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

Huge 🙏 🙏 to the v talented @joanagcc.bsky.social for creating this super cover 🧠🧪

@cp-immunity.bsky.social

@contracancerinv.bsky.social: GRACIASx27000 (récord de registro en la XII Carrera hoy en Madrid), aunque ese número debería de multiplicarse por muchísimos miles más, por la cantidad innumerable de personas con cáncer y de investigadores/as que se benefician de vuestro apoyo. Un abrazo muy fuerte!
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Nice run through the beautiful forest of Strassen to contribute to the non-stop 24h race of the LIH team for #Relais2025Lux Together against #cancer, let’s go team!! 🔥

How does the #vasculature regulate #immune cell infiltration & function across different brain tumors? 🧠🧪

Excited to share our latest study in #Immunity where we uncover some interesting answers— led by the amazing @lbejarano.bsky.social 🤩👏🏻

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@cp-immunity.bsky.social

www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

Extraordinary resource for the #brain_cancer community from @johannajoyce.bsky.social lab, led by the equally extraordinary @lbejarano.bsky.social, so happy to see this out! 👏 👏 👏

This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the @braintumourcharity.bsky.social, they’re doing a fantastic job helping not only us scientists, but also patients and families ❤️

Thank you! 🙏

It is disappointing that we still need to fight against social exclusion and discrimination, it is discouraging to witness abusive governments attempt to shut down critical thinking, but we will stand together for human dignity, freedom and knowledge as a vehicle to protect these. Please sign ⬇️

Excited to share a new paper from our lab 😀

We investigate the tumor microenvironment - to reveal factors influencing cancer progression & therapy response 🔬🧪

So we naturally wanted to ask - does the gut #microbiome influence brain #metastasis 🦠 🧠?

Massara et al 2025

www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Professor @charlesswanton.bsky.social will be opening the #EACR2025 Annual Congress with his Keynote Talk: 'Myeloid Mayhem: Inflammation driven lung cancer initiation and progression'

Explore the impressive scientific programme: 2025.eacr.org/programme

Vaccination against hepatitis B can help prevent liver cancer in children, against human papillomavirus (HPV) in young girls can help prevent cervical cancer later in life.

Today is #WorldCancerDay

Did you know❓

Vaccination against #hepatitisB can help prevent liver cancer in children, while #HPV vaccination for young girls can reduce the risk of #CervicalCancer later in life.

Learn more 👉bit.ly/2NeFF8B

Caption of 'Every country, every community together against cancer' for World Cancer Day - Feb 4, with an image of four different people supporting this goal

Today is #WorldCancerDay

A day to appreciate all the clinicians & researchers 🧪 who dedicate their lives to the fight against #cancer

And to also reflect on what a diagnosis of cancer means - to the person, their family, and their community

Every country, together against cancer 🌍 🌎 🌎

#WCD2025