Wellcome Sanger Institute

A non-canonical lymphoblast in refractory childhood T-cell leukaemia - Nature Communications T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a highly aggressive disease with varying recurrence rates. Here, the authors build a single cell transcriptomic atlas of childhood T-cell acute lymphoblastic leu...

Read ‘A non-canonical lymphoblast in refractory childhood T-cell leukaemia’ from @sangerinstitute.bsky.social, @cuh.nhs.uk, @greatormondst.bsky.social, @ucl.ac.uk and others in @natcomms.nature.com, here ⤵️

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

Jacob is sitting on the grass smiling, wearing a smiley face cap and patterned outfit. He has a bandage on his cheek, holding in a nose tube, and holds pink shoes.

Three-year-old Jacob was diagnosed with T-ALL leukaemia in December 2024 and is now in remission.

Find out more about his story here ⤵️

www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/my...

Mystery of treatment-resistant childhood leukaemia uncovered Discovery of a new cancer cell type could enable testing to predict treatment-resistant blood cancer in children with a certain type of leukaemia. This could allow them to reduce treatment intensity f...

A new type of cancer cell has been discovered in childhood leukaemia, which could impact clinical care for children with T-cell leukaemia (T-ALL).

Read more about this discovery and how it could help children with blood cancer, here ⤵️

www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/my...

Five questions on genomics in Latin America with Dr Patricia Abrão Possik - Wellcome Sanger Institute Blog Despite its extraordinary genetic diversity, Latin America remains largely absent from global genomic studies. Dr Patricia Abrão Possik discusses efforts to boost regional research capacity and insights from her work on acral melanoma.

Latin America’s genetic diversity is underrepresented in research 🌍

We spoke with Patricia Possik about boosting research equity, building capacity and her acral melanoma work.

https://sangerinstitute.blog/2025/11/11/five-questions-on-genomics-in-latin-america-with-dr-patricia-abrao-possik/

Unlocking the genetics of skin cancer - Wellcome Sanger Institute Blog Dr David Adams, Senior Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, is a pioneer in cancer biology and uncovering skin cancer genetics. We explore his 20-year career at Sanger and the global impact ...

David’s pioneering work at @sangerinstitute.bsky.social is helping uncover the genetic drivers of skin cancer and opening new doors for treatment. 🧬

Read more about David’s work here ⤵️
sangerinstitute.blog/2024/11/12/u...

David sits with his award certificate and on the left of his picture, his quote reads: "I’m honoured to have received the Outstanding Research Award. Melanoma remains one of the deadliest forms of cancer, and there’s still much more to do to improve treatment options. Improving our understanding of this disease at the molecular level is essential if we’re to find better ways to prevent and treat it."

Huge congratulations to our Senior Group Leader, Dr David Adams who has won an award for his research on melanoma. 🎉

The award for Outstanding Research was presented at the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR) 22nd International Congress in Amsterdam.

Alt Text: Image shows quote card with Professor Sir Mike Stratton standing in front of a brown background and text on the left reads: “The rise in early-onset bowel cancer is one of the most urgent conundrums in modern medicine. This grant will enable us to combine cutting-edge genomic and microbiome research to uncover its causes and ultimately, help develop strategies to prevent it.”

The team at @sangerinstitute.bsky.social and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) will combine genomics, microbiome science and global collaboration to uncover causes of early onset bowel cancer, which may lead to preventative strategies in the future.

Sanger scientists receive major grant to study rise of early onset colorectal cancer Dr Trevor Lawley and Professor Mike Stratton awarded funding to enable investigation into the roots of growing cancer concern.

Bowel cancer cases in people under 50 are rising worldwide, and the reasons remain unclear.

With a new @erc.europa.eu Synergy Grant, scientists will look into how gut bacteria in early life might increase the risk of bowel cancer in young adults. 👇

www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/sa...

Basic reproduction number varies markedly between closely related pandemic Escherichia coli clones - Nature Communications Authors introduce an epidemiological model to estimate the basic reproduction number (R0) for multiple E. coli genotypes and find that some have comparable transmissibility to pandemic H1N1 while othe...

Read ‘Basic reproduction number varies markedly between closely related pandemic Escherichia coli clones’ from @sangerinstitute.bsky.social, @aalto.fi in Finland, University of Oslo and their collaborators in @natcomms.nature.com here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Advanced disease modelling shows some gut bacteria can spread as rapidly as viruses Experts can now predict the transmission rate of a bacterial E. coli infection in the same way as they can for viral pandemics, which can help battling treatment-resistant infections in the future.

E. coli can spread as quickly as swine flu, new research reveals. 🦠

For the first time, scientists can predict the rate at which gut bacteria pass between people — a major step towards tackling antibiotic-resistant infections.

Read here ⤵️
sanger.ac.uk/news_item/ad...

Basic reproduction number varies markedly between closely related pandemic Escherichia coli clones Nature Communications - Authors introduce an epidemiological model to estimate the basic reproduction number (R0) for multiple E. coli genotypes and find that some have comparable transmissibility...

Read ‘Basic reproduction number varies markedly between closely related pandemic Escherichia coli clones’ from @SangerInstitute, @aalto.fi in Finland, University of Oslo and their collaborators in @natcomms.nature.com here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65301-1

Complex de novo structural variants are an underestimated cause of rare disorders - Nature Communications De novo structural variants are an important cause of rare disorders but remain poorly understood. Here, the authors analyse over 12,000 families and reveal the prevalence, diversity, and clinical imp...

Read ‘Complex de novo structural variants are an underestimated cause of rare disorders’ from @sangerinstitute.bsky.social, @genomicsengland.bsky.social, @cuh.nhs.uk and collaborators in @natcomms.nature.com here:

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

145 families receive a diagnosis with new genomic method Experts have developed a new method for identifying structural changes in DNA, providing insights for 145 families and highlighting the importance of incorporating these changes into clinical practice...

145 families finally get answers about rare conditions that had gone undiagnosed for years. 🧬

By looking more closely at how DNA can rearrange itself, researchers uncovered changes that standard tests often miss.

Find out more 👇
sanger.ac.uk/news_item/14...

Genetic population structure of Haemophilus influenzae at local and global scales - Nature Microbiology Large-scale sequencing and population genomic analyses reveal frequent transmission, a highly admixed global population structure and evidence of pervasive negative selection in Haemophilus influenzae...

Read ‘Genetic population structure of Haemophilus influenzae at local and global scales’ from @sangerinstitute.bsky.social, the University of Oslo, University of Helsinki, @ox.ac.uk and collaborators in @natmicrobiol.nature.com here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Opening the door to a vaccine for multiple childhood infections The first large-scale genomic exploration of H. influenzae has revealed extensive antibiotic resistance and uncovered genetic clues that could help in future vaccine development.

Haemophilus influenzae bacteria can cause up to 200 million childhood infections every year, and new research is helping pave the way for a future vaccine against this. 🔬

Find out more⤵️
www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/op...

AI and genomics pave the way to new data-driven scientific discoveries - Wellcome Sanger Institute Blog Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how we analyse biological data – from predicting protein structures to uncovering insights from vast genomic datasets. Ronnie Crawford, Science Solutions Lead at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, bridg...

At first, Ronnie Crawford was hesitant about coding, but now he helps researchers tackle complex challenges with AI 💻

Read about his career & the advice he would give his younger self ⤵️
https://sangerinstitute.blog/2025/10/29/ai-and-genomics-pave-the-way-to-new-data-driven-scientific-discoveries/

Congratulations to Roser Vento-Tormo, who has been awarded the 2025 Foulkes Foundation Academy of Medical Sciences Medal! 🎉

This award acknowledges her transformative work that has opened pathways for future diagnostics and treatments in women’s health. 🧬

Find out more ⤵️

Thanks to @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social for the great visual! 👏

Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. In this work, we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipie...

Read 'Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito' by @sangerinstitute.bsky.social and @princeton.edu in @science.org here ⤵️
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The so-called 'London Underground mosquito' linked to West Nile Virus evolved over 1,000 years ago — not 200 years ago in Europe. 🦟

New research reshapes our theories of urban mosquito evolution. 👇
http://bit.ly/4qnJOJi

Really, really happy that our work on microsporidian genomes is now out in @plosbiology.org! A huge thank you to my coauthors, my supervisors @mblaxter.bsky.social & @marakat.bsky.social, the editors @roliroberts.bsky.social & Joseph Heitman, and the reviewers ❤️ plos.io/48HsAQJ

A new dimension of genomics is here. Spatial transcriptomics is transforming how we understand tissues – revealing where genes act, and why it matters. 🧬

Try our spatial-inspired game before reading the latest blog ⬇️ https://sangerinstitute.blog/2025/10/22/what-is-spatial-transcriptomics/

An amazing achievement - congratulations to all involved! 👏

Celebrating the first 1000 genomes of Lepidoptera in Europe, sequenced at @sangerinstitute.bsky.social in collaboration with sampling hubs across the UK via the DToL project www.darwintreeoflife.org & across Europe via
@projectpsyche.bsky.social www.projectpsyche.org &
@10klepgenomes.bsky.social

“I’m not trying to do science just for scientists. I’m doing it to try to solve important problems that will make a difference”: Jussi Taipale on genomics at scale and... Professor Jussi Taipale joined the Wellcome Sanger Institute in January this year as a Senior Group Leader in the Generative and Synthetic Genomics Programme. His ambition? To predict gene expression directly from DNA sequence. In this blog, he reflects on his international research journey, how biology is scaling up, and why his research group aims to solve one of the biggest puzzles in genomics.

Can AI reveal how genes are switched on and off by only looking at the DNA sequence? Jussi Taipale’s group blends lab work with predictive models to try and provide an answer 🧬

http://bit.ly/3KSYHTF

The Sanger Institute established the Tree of Life program to support the Earth BioGenome Project, sequencing all of Earth's eukaryotic biodiversity. Portrait of Professor Mark Blaxter included. Wellcome Sanger Institute logo.

In 2021, Wellcome Open Research launched the Tree of Life Gateway with the goal to publish the genome sequences of every species.

In 2024, the Gateway published the 1,000th Genome Note.

Explore this milestone with our recent blog post 🔗spr.ly/6009AxyLP

@sangerinstitute.bsky.social

EBP R&D experts are paving the way for new discoveries, one extraction at a time.
@ergabiodiv.bsky.social @vertebrategenomes.bsky.social egenomes.bsky.social @kurakulabmsm.bsky.social @atlasea.bsky.social @biogeneurope.bsky.social @sangerinstitute.bsky.social @invertebrates.bsky.social

Somatic mutation and selection at population scale - Nature A new version of nanorate DNA sequencing, with an error rate lower than five errors per billion base pairs and compatible with whole-exome and targeted capture, enables epidemiological-scale studies of somatic mutation and selection and the generation of high-resolution selection maps across coding and non-coding sites for many genes.

Read ‘Somatic mutation and selection at population scale' by @sangerinstitute.bsky.social and collaborators in @nature.com here:

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

Improved genetic tool reveals hidden mutations that can drive cancer A new and improved version of NanoSeq unlocks clues into ageing, disease and cancer development.

Hidden genetic changes have been uncovered in healthy cells, thanks to an improved version of NanoSeq, an ultra-accurate DNA sequencing tool. 🧬

The breakthrough offers new insights into ageing, disease, and the origins of cancer. ⤵️

www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/im...

Sperm sequencing reveals extensive positive selection in the male germline - Nature A combination of whole-genome NanoSeq with deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq is used to accurately characterize mutation rates and genes under positive selection in sperm cells.

Read ‘Sperm sequencing reveals extensive positive selection in the male germline’ from @sangerinstitute.bsky.social and collaborators in @nature.com below:

nature.com/articles/s41...