Johanna Joyce Lab

The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research is making a huge impact - in the US and globally 🙌

Very grateful for their support 🙏 - for an #ASPIRE award that funded our microbiome research, and for two #Momentum Fellows in our lab @lbejarano.bsky.social & @ale-matera.bsky.social

@themarkfdn.bsky.social

Delighted to join the annual #ASEICA cancer research congress in Bilbao 🇪🇸

An exciting agenda sharing our team's science in the opening keynote on Oct 8, joining a "Meet the Expert" on Wed evening, and the "Women Leading Science" roundtable Oct 9 lunchtime

@aseica.bsky.social @helloeacr.bsky.social

Photo of all our team members at our international lab dinner, with some of the dishes at the front of the picture

Celebrating our annual international lab dinner 🎉 👨🏽‍🍳 🧑🏻‍🍳

We are so fortunate to have this amazing team of motivated scientists, and very talented cooks 🤩 sharing delicious food & culture from around the world 🌍🌎🌏

Grateful for our #international #team 🇮🇹🇫🇷🇨🇦🇪🇸🇨🇭🇬🇧🇪🇬🇩🇪🇵🇹🇲🇽🇮🇪 - this truly enriches our science 🙏 🙌

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

A pleasure to speak at the amazing #ImmunoRad meeting in the heart of Paris, at the beautiful Sorbonne Université, and to share the research of our wonderful team!

Many thanks to all the organisers for such a stimulating conference at the intersection of #cancer #radiotherapy and #immunity 🙏 ☢️⚕️🧪🔬

Let’s reject budget cuts in education and research! We, researchers, students, and members of the administrative and technical staff of the University of Lausanne (UNIL), firmly oppose the budget cuts announced for UNIL by the government of Vaud on 24t...

Dear friends at the University of Lausanne - please consider signing this petition

This is to say NO to the funding cut of 24 million CHF that will negatively impact the quality of our teaching & research 🧪🧑🏼‍🎓 - and have a knock-on effect on the local economy

All students, staff, faculty can sign ⏬

Photo of new lab members outside the Agora Cancer Research Center, Lausanne, left to right: Matteo Poncina Inés Panigua Cabana Alessandro Gigliotti Juan Daniel Martin del Campo Flores

A warm welcome to our new lab members!

Matteo Poncina 🇮🇹 starting his PhD in the Adaptmet ITN

Inés Panigua Cabana 🇪🇸 joining us for her postdoc

Alessandro Gigliotti 🇨🇭 & Juan Daniel Martin del Campo Flores 🇲🇽 doing their master thesis research with us

Looking forward to exciting science together 🙌 🧪

#adar1 #adar1 | Oncologie | UNIL-CHUV 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄: 𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚 🧠 Glioblastoma is one of the deadliest cancers. A new study in 𝑪𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒔 by Ángel Álvarez-Prado and Johanna Joyce shows how reawakenin...

𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄: 𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚

#BrainTIME 🧠🦠🔬🧪

UNIL news 📰: www.unil.ch/news/1757312...
#OpenAccess article 🔗: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@alvarezprado.bsky.social @ahernandezb.bsky.social
@joycelab.bsky.social
@fbm-unil.bsky.social @unil.bsky.social

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 preclinical mouse models of glioblastoma.

Cancer cell and microenvironmental rewiring by ADAR1 loss impairs glioblastoma tumor growth and extends survival

Congratulations to all the ERC Starting Grant awardees 🧪 including @alvarezprado.bsky.social & @lbejarano.bsky.social, two brilliant former postdocs from my lab who have started their own labs this year in 🇱🇺 and 🇪🇸

Could not be more proud of Leire and Ángel 🤩 🎉 🎉 🎉

#proudmentor 😊
#ERCStartingGrant

Thrilled to share that I’ve been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for the METAVASC project, focused on studying the vasculature in brain mets 🙏🎉

Huge thanks to the ERC, mentors & collaborators that made this possible!

We’ll soon recruit PhDs, postdocs & techs, stay tuned😊
@erc.europa.eu #ERCStG

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

Cancer cell and microenvironmental rewiring by ADAR1 loss impairs glioblastoma tumor growth and extends survival Glioblastomas are the most frequent and aggressive primary brain tumors. Current treatments invariably fail, a consequence of the pronounced heterogen…

Thrilled to share our new study from @joycelab.bsky.social on glioblastoma, the most aggressive brain tumor. Targeting ADAR1 slows tumor growth & mobilizes the immune system — a step forward for future treatments. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🔗 1/3

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 🧠🦠🧪
🧵

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common & aggressive brain tumor - with almost no progress for patients in decades

We asked - what if we could flip the switch on an immune pathway normally used to fight viruses, and turn it against GBM? 🦠🧠

2/

By impairing ADAR1, a key RNA-sensing regulator, we uncovered a one-two punch:

- Cancer-cell intrinsic mechanisms slowed tumor proliferation in a PKR-dependent manner

- The immune microenvironment was reprogrammed into a pro-inflammatory, anti-tumoral state via type I IFN

3/

🧐 Why does this matter?

GBM remains one of the deadliest cancers.

Targeting ADAR1 could simultaneously stop tumors from the inside - and mobilize the immune system from the outside.

These are questions that @alvarezprado.bsky.social is now pursuing in his new lab in Luxembourg

4/

Huge congratulations to Ángel 🤩 and our amazing co-authors @ahernandezb.bsky.social, Livia Rentsch & Catia Costa 👏👏

Many thanks to Agora Cancer Center & @fbm-unil.bsky.social core facilities & funding from Ludwig Cancer Research, Swiss Cancer Research, UNIL, EMBO, MSCA, & The Brain Tumor Charity 🙏

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

30th Anniversary Series on the Future of Medicine As Nature Medicine celebrates the 30th anniversary of it’s launch, we reflect on what the future holds for medicine and for our journal.

Nature Medicine celebrates 30 years 🎉 with a wonderful series on the #FutureofMedicine ⚕️🧪

It was a privilege to contribute to this collection of diverse pieces, and reflect on a study we published there in 2013 - on the re-education of tumor-associated macrophages

www.nature.com/collections/...

The EACR’s Women in Leadership workshop returns for 2025 - The Cancer Researcher Ahead of the EACR 2025 Congress in Lisbon, Portugal, the EACR once again hosted its popular Women in Leadership Workshop on 16 June 2025. The event brought together 26 early-career female cancer resea...

The numbers of women in science falls substantially at the transition from postdoc to independent investigator/ PI

So what can we do to prevent this?

One initiative we now organise annually at #EACR is the highly successful 'Women in Leadership' workshop ⏬

#WomenInScience 🧪
@helloeacr.bsky.social

White text on a black background: For me, the most inspiring part was seeing how many women are now leading the field of cancer research. I’ve attended conferences before, but this time, it felt different; there was a strong presence of women not just as attendees, but as keynote speakers, session chairs, and award recipients. It made me pause and realize how much the landscape is changing. As a young woman in science, it felt both empowering and motivating. It reminded me that we’re not just contributing, we’re also shaping the future of this field in a real and visible way.

As conference organisers, we just love to receive feedback like this anonymous comment from a trainee at our recent #EACR2025 Congress in Lisbon 😊

#WomeninSTEM #WomeninScience 🧪🔬👩🏻‍🔬👩🏼‍💻👩🏾‍⚕️👩‍🔬👩🏿‍🔬

@helloeacr.bsky.social

Truly honored to receive the 'Young Researcher in Basic Sciences Award' from the Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne! 🧠 ✨
Huge thanks to Johanna Joyce for her excellent mentorship, support, and inspiration — I’m incredibly grateful!
And congrats to all the other awardees! 🎉

CNS gatekeepers: IFNγ-activated dendritic cells control leptomeningeal metastasis - Cell Research Cell Research - CNS gatekeepers: IFNγ-activated dendritic cells control leptomeningeal metastasis

🧠 Neuro-immunology is reshaping how we understand the brain - across many diseases, including #cancer

In this research highlight 🧪🔬 we discuss a new study in #Nature by Remsik, Boire et al showing how IFNγ-activated immune cells in the CNS, incl DCs, help constrain leptomeningeal #metastasis

Interferon-γ orchestrates leptomeningeal anti-tumour response - Nature Independent of antigen presentation, migratory CCR7+ dendritic cells orchestrate the influx, proliferation and cytotoxic action of natural killer cells to control cancer cell growth in the leptomening...

Written with @ahernandezb.bsky.social, a wonderful postdoc in my lab!

Many congratulations to @meningojan.bsky.social and @adrienneboire.bsky.social for this amazing publication:

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

Photo of Dr Leire Bejarano (left) receiving her award from Prof Margot Thome-Miazza (right)

Huge congratulations to Dr Leire Bejarano, an amazing postdoc from our lab, who received the "Young Researcher in Basic Sciences Award" from the Faculty of Biology & Medicine UNIL

Super proud of you @lbejarano.bsky.social !! 🎉🥳🤩

@fbm-unil.bsky.social @unil.bsky.social

www.unil.ch/news/1749042...

Excited to share our research highlight on leptomeningeal metastasis and how IFNγ-activated dendritic cells shape CNS immune control—featuring the latest from @adrienneboire.bsky.social and @meningojan.bsky.social—
A privilege to write this with @johannajoyce.bsky.social at @joycelab.bsky.social 🙏🧠🔬

The #career #discovery sessions are one of many great aspects of our #EACR Congress - and one of my favourite ways to chat with early career researchers!

We had a great discussion on "Efficient and caring mentorship: how to make your research team flourish"

#EACR2025
@helloeacr.bsky.social

The EACR Board is gathering this week in Lisbon to review the past year and look ahead to how we can continue benefiting our members and the wider cancer research community 🤩💙

Mini Joyce lab reunion at the #EACR Congress in Lisbon!

We were very happy to have presented our research, to learn about the latest major cancer discoveries, and also to reconnect with several of our alumni!

#EACR2025