Blog & latest updates

Blog11 Jan 2022

2021: A Mutographs Story

Saamin Cheema joined the Mutographs project in January 2021 as a Data Scientist. Here, she reflects on the year she has spent as part of the Mutographs team.
News25 Oct 2021

Unravelling the mystery of oesophageal cancer incidence

The Mutographs team has added an unexpected piece to the complex puzzle surrounding the development of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC): no mutational signature exists to explain the profound difference in incidence rates across the world.
News25 Oct 2021

Hunting for the unknown causes of cancer

In this article, Mutographs patient advocates Maggie and Mimi share their involvement in the research, their own experiences of cancer, and their journey around the globe.
Blog28 Jun 2021

A COSMIC catalogue of cancer data

The work of the Mutographs team relies on being able to access high quality scientific data about cancer mutations. Here, Mutographs scientist Ellie Dunstone explains how the COSMIC team and their catalogue of cancer data support the Mutographs project.
Blog18 Mar 2021

An engaging virtual trip to Iran

In the second part of our blog on our virtual trips to Iran, we explore what we learned from talking to a cancer survivor living in the Golestan province.
Blog18 Mar 2021

An engaging virtual trip to Iran

One of the roles for the patient advocates on Mutographs is to visit countries where samples are being collected and find out more about the society and culture in that region and how people feel about cancer.
Blog30 Jan 2021

Looking back at 2020 and forward into the future

What a strange year 2020 has been. Nobody could have predicted that as we started the New Year making exciting plans, everything would swiftly come to a halt and never quite get back to ‘normal’ again.
Blog20 Nov 2020

Pathology: the revealing examination of Mutographs tissue samples

Behnoush Abedi-Ardekani (MD) a scientist and pathologist at IARC takes us through the meticulous analysis of Mutographs tissue samples to determine their suitability for sequencing and further analysis at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK.
Blog17 Aug 2020

The around the world journey of Mutographs samples

Following the Mutographs’ focus on kidney, colorectal and pancreatic cancers, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and esophageal adenocarcinoma, the co-Principal Investigator at IARC Paul Brennan heads work package 1 to investigate the incidence of these cancers worldwide.
Blog19 Jun 2020

We might be at home but science goes on

As COVID-19 spread around the world, continents and countries shut down all but essential activity in quick succession.
News7 May 2020

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

On the first of May Mutographs celebrated its third anniversary.
News3 Apr 2020

From the Summit: what is the future vision of Patient Involvement?

The CRUK Grand Challenge Project had a summit in Windsor in February 2020. Alongside the science a strong emphasis was devoted to considerations around communication with and involvement of patients to bring research and clinic closer together.
Blog7 Nov 2019

“If you know, there is a Nobel prize for you!” – Searching for the causes of cancer in the Czech Republic

Part 2: In May 2019, patient advocates Mimi McCord and Maggie Blanks travelled to Czech Republic to meet some of the researchers working on the Cancer Research UK Mutographs of Cancer Grand Challenge project.
Blog7 Nov 2019

Cancer in the Czech Republic: From the Velvet revolution to the genomics revolution

Part 1: In May 2019, patient advocates Mimi McCord and Maggie Blanks travelled to the Czech Republic as part of the Cancer Research UK Mutographs of Cancer Grand Challenge project.
Blog15 Oct 2019

What we learned in Lyon

In July 2019, the Mutographs team held a conference in Lyon, France that brought together our collaborators from across the world. Here, the patient advocates for the Mutographs project, Maggie and Mimi, share their thoughts and things they learned on the conference.
Blog31 May 2019

Building a ‘criminal database’ of environmental cancer causes

Jill Kucab from King’s College London explains how the Mutographs team are building a ‘criminal database’ of suspects that might be causing cancer.
Blog18 Apr 2019

Liver cancer in Southeast Asia and beyond

Rose Li, a physician scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, explains how her work on the Mutographs project is helping to understand the causes of liver cancer, a condition that affects a large number of people in China and Southeast Asia. 
Blog26 Mar 2019

The curious case of oesophageal cancer

Cases of oesophageal cancer have an unusual pattern across the world. Some very specific regions can have a large numbers of cases but neighbouring regions have very few people affected.
Blog11 Feb 2019

The life of a Mutographs scientist

My name is Sarah, and I am a scientist in Mike Stratton’s group working on the Mutographs project. I have been working on this project for just over a year now.
Blog23 Jan 2019

What did we achieve on Mutographs in 2018?

Mutographs project manager Laura Humphreys reflects on what the project has achieved in 2018, and highlights what the team will be up to in 2019.
Blog18 Dec 2018

How can artificial intelligence help us identify causes of cancer?

Phoebe He, a scientist in the Alexandrov Lab at the University of California San Diego, explains how machine learning and artificial intelligence are crucial to the work of the Mutographs project.
Blog8 Nov 2018

Bringing Mutographs to life for shoppers in Cambridge

Mutographs scientist Tim Butler explains how researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute developed an activity to showcase the work of the Mutographs team to shoppers in Cambridge.
Blog7 Sep 2018

What does a mutational signature look like?

In the Mutographs project, we are investigating signatures that are left in DNA by lifestyle and environmental factors. These signatures are formed of changes to DNA known as “mutations”, which is why we call them “mutational signatures”. But what does a mutational signature look like?
Blog7 Sep 2018

How can mini-organs help us to understand cancer?

Hear more from Maggie and Mimi about how growing mini-organs in the lab will help us to understand DNA signatures.
Blog22 Jul 2018

Oesophageal cancer in Kenya

In February 2018, patient advocates Mimi McCord and Maggie Blanks and journalist and author Kat Arney travelled to Eldoret, Kenya, where samples are being collected for the Mutographs project. In this guest post, Kat explains why they went there and what they discovered about oesophageal cancer in East Africa.
News10 Feb 2017

Sanger scientists win £20 million ‘Grand Challenge’ funding from Cancer Research UK

Professor Sir Mike Stratton will lead an international team to help transform our understanding of what causes cancer