Narita Lab

Congratulations to Aleksandra Janowska who has won our Postgraduate Student Thesis Prize for her work unlocking new avenues for studying the role of cell identity in the origin of cancer.

The Prize is awarded yearly to a student undertaking an outstanding project during their PhD study with us.

✨ I’m looking for PhD students in machine learning who are passionate about applying AI to biomedicine to join my lab at the University of Cambridge.✨

More info: www.cruk.cam.ac.uk/vacancies/cr...

Mapping chromatin structure at base-pair resolution unveils a unified model of cis-regulatory element interactions Li et al. apply base-pair resolution Micro Capture-C ultra to map chromatin contacts between individual motifs within cis-regulatory elements and reveal a unified model of biophysically mediated enhan...

Fine-scale chromatin mapping uncovers principles of cis-regulatory element interactions. #NBThighlight www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

What an honour to have been awarded the CRUK Cambridge Institute Thesis Prize 2025 for my PhD project focusing on chromatin architecture in the @narita-lab.bsky.social at @cruk-ci.bsky.social 🎉 Big thank you to Masashi for allowing me to to this exciting project and the CI community for all support!

Congratulations 🎉 to our PhD student Aleksandra @atjanowska.bsky.social for winning the Best Thesis Prize 🥇. She and Jack (PhD student) presented their work today at the Annual Retreat @cruk-ci.bsky.social We had so much fun with the Team Building, congrats to @hana-aliee.bsky.social for winning! 🏆

Frontiers in Stem Cell Innovation 2026 Join leading academics and industry professionals exploring cutting-edge stem cell technologies and disease modelling for drug discovery

🚨 Exciting conference for stem cell aficionados!
‘Frontiers in Stem Cell Innovation’ will bring together experts in stem cell biology from academia & industry to discuss key developments as well as challenges in regenerative medicine and disease modelling.
fisci2026.eventbrite.co.uk
Please repost 🙏

Yesterday our lab group had the pleasure of hosting CRIses, the department-wide social at CRUK. The theme was The Beatles, featuring some of their classic tunes and a Sgt. Pepper-inspired cocktail. Thanks to all who came! 🎸

I'm recruiting ML postdocs to join my lab at the University of Cambridge. Our research focuses on generative modelling, counterfactual reasoning, and sequence modelling to reason about and intervene in complex cellular functions in disease.

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

The Fit Fellas Cancer is happening right now, which is why we're fundraising right now for Cancer Research UK. There’s no time to lose! Donate today and help bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. Donatin...

Ioana in our lab is participating in the Shine Night Walk Cambridge 10k 2025 tomorrow. Please join/support/share her team page:
fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/team/the-fit... @cruk-ci.bsky.social

Really excited to share our latest work led by @mattiaubertini.bsky.social and @nesslfy.bsky.social: we report that cohesin loop extrusion creates rare but long-lived encounters between genomic sequences which underlie efficient enhancer-promoter communication.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A🧵👇

We are greatly enjoying the exciting science (and location) at ICSA 2025 Rome #ICSA2025Rome @icsasenescence.bsky.social

Tonight, we had a send off dinner for Hiro. We hope you enjoyed your time in our lab and in the UK as much as we enjoyed having you around!

We were honoured to host Prof. Makoto Nakanishi from the University of Tokyo, presenting his work on the senolytic activity of GLS1 inhibition.

Dinner with the two summer students we are hosting and who just presented the results of their hard work to the lab 🧪🧫💻

Cell biology lecture

Introducing Cell Biology to Students from Aichi Prefectural Asahigaoka High School (July 2024 & July 2025)

aichi-asahigaoka.ed.jp/news/-Cjth-tx

It’s out!!!!! We hope our review on aging, immunity, and cancer is helpful.

Such a rewarding group effort led by Melissa Dolan, with Kendra Libby, Alison Ringle, and @vangalenlab.bsky.social

So grateful to @gabriellebrewer.bsky.social @natrevcancer.nature.com for her efforts and support

👓 Our latest review is out in the Genes&Dev special issue on Aging and Senescence @genesdev.bsky.social released today: The rise of RAS: how gradual oncogene activation shapes the OIS spectrum genesdev.cshlp.org/content/39/1...
genesdev.cshlp.org/content/curr...

a cartoon character is surrounded by cats and the caption says when someone asks you what your dream job is ALT: a cartoon character is surrounded by cats and the caption says when someone asks you what your dream job is

Only a few days left to apply to join our lab and do exciting senescence research at the University of Cambridge Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute @cruk-ci.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk 🧪🧬

You can also send informal enquiries (info below):

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52026/
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52027/

Combined single-cell profiling of chromatin–transcriptome and splicing across brain cell types, regions and disease state - Nature Biotechnology Joint profiling of chromatin and splicing in the brain uncovers shared and distinct patterns.

Combined single-cell profiling of chromatin–transcriptome and splicing across brain cell types, regions and disease state - @hagentilgner.bsky.social @liganlab.bsky.social go.nature.com/3IKlcJn

Cell cycle duration determines oncogenic transformation capacity Danian Chen, Suying Lu, Katherine Huang, Joel D. Pearson, Marek Pacal, Phillipos Peidis, Sean McCurdy, Tao Yu, Monika Sangwan, Angela Nguyen, Philippe P. Monnier, Daniel Schramek, Liang Zhu, David Santamaria, Mariano Barbacid, Nagako Akeno, Kathryn A. Wikenheiser-Brokamp & Rod Bremner https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08935-x

A recent paper reveals a surprising insight. The length of the cell cycle in a particular tissue determines the oncogenic transformation capacity of particular oncogenes, with tissues with shorter cell cycles most susceptible 3/n

🚨 Big news! The 10th Annual ICSA Meeting is coming to Rome 🇮🇹 on Sept 17-19, 2025!

Join us Sept 16th for the 2nd Phaedon Institute-ICSA SenoTherapeutics Summit!

🎟️ Register now—early bird & abstract submissions close June 15!

🔗 icsa2025rome.com

#ICSARome2025

scNanoHi-C2 uncovers dynamic reorganization of 3D chromatin structure in mammalian germ cells Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 16 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01603-8By leveraging long-read sequencing, single-cell input scNanoHi-C2 systematically delineates chromatin structural reprogramming in embryonic-stage germ cells (EGCs), highlighting the functional importance of three-dimensional (3D) genome structure in mammalian EGC development. This method provides a powerful tool for probing chromatin architecture in individual cells, particularly in rare or precious biological samples.

ICYMI: New online: scNanoHi-C2 uncovers dynamic reorganization of 3D chromatin structure in mammalian germ cells

🗞️Our July issue is live!📷 This month, we're featuring work on intrinsic capacity, senescence, and more. Read it all here: www.nature.com/nataging/vol...

Differentiation, ageing and leukaemia alter the metabolic profile of human bone marrow haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells - Nature Cell Biology Lalioti, Romero-Mulero et al. combine metabolomics, lipidomics and transcriptomics of haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells during differentiation, ageing and leukaemia, finding a role for choline ...

🔥NEW paper from our lab! Ever wondered how the metabolite/lipid composition of human bone marrow HSCs changes during differentiation,aging,AML? Check our work www.nature.com/articles/s41... driven by the brilliant Marialena & Maricarmen with Jörg! @mpi-ie.bsky.social @ethz.ch @natcellbio.nature.com

Cancer progression through the lens of age-induced metabolic reprogramming - Nature Reviews Cancer In this Perspective, Lazure and Gomes argue that metabolic changes that occur as a result of ageing may shape tumour initiation and progression and the development of metastatic disease.

#Perspective 🚨
Lazure and Gomes argue that metabolic changes that occur as a result of #ageing may shape tumour initiation and progression and the development of metastatic disease.
⬇️ 📖
https://bit.ly/3IkNY...
@moffittnews.bsky.social‬

NNMT inhibition in cancer-associated fibroblasts restores antitumour immunity - Nature An NNMT inhibitor reduces tumour burden and metastasis in multiple mouse cancer models and restores immune checkpoint blockade efficacy by decreasing cancer-associated-fibroblast-mediated recruitment of myeloid-derived suppressor cells and reinvigorating CD8+ T cell activation.

Nature research paper: NNMT inhibition in cancer-associated fibroblasts restores antitumour immunity

go.nature.com/3II8HhA

We are the Narita Lab at Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. Excited to join Bluesky and share our research with like-minded scientists!

a yellow sign that says we 're hiring ALT: a yellow sign that says we 're hiring

Spread the news! We are excited to expand our research team, working on cellular senescence, at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge.

jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52026/
jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52027/