Camila dos Santos

Bioluminescent image of an organoid with brightly colored cells arranged in a loose spiral shape. Text beside the image reads "How does having an early first pregnancy lower a person's risk of breast cancer later in life?

New research from @ucsantacruz.bsky.social Genomics Institute affiliate Shaheen Sikandar shows that pregnancy may “reset” how breast tissue ages, reducing cell changes that are linked to higher breast cancer risk later in life. news.ucsc.edu/2026/01/preg...

Loss of BPTF restores estrogen response and suppresses metastasis of mammary tumors Nature Communications - BPTF is known to regulate chromatin accessibility and self-renewal in mammary epithelial stem cells. Here, the authors discover that BPTF inhibition delays tumor formation,...

Check out our new study on re-activating estrogen responses in hormone low/negative breast cancer - www.nature.com/articles/s41...

MaGNet: A Network-Based Method for Quantitative Analysis of the Mammary Ductal Tree in Developing Female Mice - Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia The mammary gland is a uniquely dynamic organ with a branching architecture that develops entirely after birth in response to hormonal cues. A common approach in mammary gland biology is the evaluation of branching morphogenesis to characterize the role of developmental, physiological and molecular perturbations on branching tissue invasion, growth, and maintenance. Yet, the field still lacks a fully open-sourced, quantitative framework to analyze whole-mount mammary tissue images, as a commonly utilized methodology. Here, we present MaGNet (Mammary Gland Network analysis tool), a method that leverages network theory to characterize key features of ductal branching during mammary gland development. Applying this pipeline to mammary gland images captured at three pubertal timepoints, we achieved reproducible quantification of ductal tree expansion across development. In addition, this network analysis pipeline captures ductal expansion induced by pregnancy hormones. By providing open-source tools to the research community, this method may increase reproducibility and broad applicability across diverse organ systems, model organisms, and developmental stages.

Are you looking for a reliable strategy to quantify the architecture of mammary tissue using whole mount images?? Well, maybe you should check MaGNet, our new computational based and user friendly approach (and you probably can adapt it to other organs as well). link.springer.com/article/10.1...

T cell receptor cross-reactivity prediction improved by a comprehensive mutational scan database Banerjee et al. present a comprehensive T cell receptor cross-reactivity database and a hierarchical Bayesian framework to predict T cell receptor targets. Together, they reveal structural and biochem...

Check out how we tackled one of the fundamental challenges in immunology, out today @cp-cellsystems.bsky.social: www.cell.com/cell-systems.... Our major innovations are BATCAVE and BATMAN, two new players to get us closer to solving TCR-pMHC predictions!

2025 Komen Greater New York Race for the Cure I am supporting Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Come join me!

Out lab will be running a 5K to raise funds supporting the Komen Foundation - Consider supporting this important cause! www.info-komen.org/site/TR?fr_i...

Volunteer and contribute to the EACR'S mission against cancer!

We have open positions for two new members of the EACR Travel Fellowship Committee, which reviews and assesses all EACR Travel Fellowship applications.

Deadline: 09 March
Learn more: eacr.org/governance/v...

My regular reminder that there is an open call @pasteur.fr for junior group leader covering various axis (including topics related to development biology), open till Feb. 28th. Don't hesitate to DM me or reach out by email if you want to get more context.
research.pasteur.fr/fr/call/call...

I'm hiring:

1. Research associate (wet-lab w/ phd) to generate mpra perturbation data

2. ML postdoc to build multimodal generative AI for DNA (eg diffusion and LLMs)

3. Bioinformatician (any level) to process and harmonize functional genomics data to train foundation models

DM me if interested!

What the Polio Vaccine Has Meant for Public Health A lawyer working with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has asked the F.D.A. to withdraw approval of the current shot because it hasn’t been tested against a placebo. Scientists say such a test would be unethical...

'The polio virus is still circulating worldwide. In 2022, an unvaccinated man in Rockland County, N.Y., was paralyzed by polio. Earlier this year, the virus paralyzed a child in Gaza, the first case in the region in 25 years, which prompted a mass vaccination campaign against polio.'

Group of 21 participants on the patio outside the conference center

Thank you to all participants of "Cancer during Pregnancy" for three days of productive discussion.

Special thanks to Dr. Camila dos Santos @caoresco.bsky.social for organizing, and to the @cshlnews.bsky.social - @northwellhealth.bsky.social Affiliation for support.

Read the agenda: bit.ly/PREG-24

Thanksgiving vibes…

Co-organizing the GRC Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia meeting this coming spring in Maine with Traci Lyons. Submit your abstracts for short talk consideration!

www.grc.org/mammary-glan...

Comprehensive single-cell aging atlas of healthy mammary tissues reveals shared epigenomic and transcriptomic signatures of aging and Cancer. #NatureAging #Aging #scisky #Medsky #News #Cancer

Open Access
www.nature.com/articles/s43...

A brain-body feedback loop driving HPA-axis dysfunction in breast cancer Breast cancer patients often exhibit disrupted circadian rhythms in circulating glucocorticoids (GCs), such as cortisol. This disruption correlates with reduced quality of life and higher cancer morta...

1st post on bluesky! I might as well use this opportunity to plug our recent preprint where we identify a potential neurophysiological mechanism driving aberrant HPA-axis activity in breast cancer.

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

I did I thing this morning 🫣

Epigenetic scars of Brca1 loss point toward breast cancer cell of origin - Nature Genetics The two-hit hypothesis suggests that a second mutation is necessary for cancer development in cells with a defective tumor-suppressor gene, such as BRCA1. However, a study now shows that the loss of j...

Check out our News and views on @carman-mc-li.bsky.social cool study about the molecular regulation of Brca1 deficiency mammary oncogenesis - with Steven Lewis www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Brca1 haploinsufficiency promotes early tumor onset and epigenetic alterations in a mouse model of hereditary breast cancer - Nature Genetics A second hit to Brca1 in heterozygous mice leads to accelerated tumor development compared to wild-type mice in which both alleles are simultaneously deleted. This is because of an epigenetic state as...

New work from Joan Brugge's lab @harvardcellbio.bsky.social explores how Brca1 haploinsufficiency promotes early tumor onset and epigenetic alterations in a mouse model of hereditary breast cancer - Led by Carman Li www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy to share our recently published work on mapping mammary Organoids cellular and molecular responses to female hormones using a cross-species approach. Check it out! link.springer.com/article/10.1...