@CalumGabbutt

Computational biologist interested in cancer evolution, maths modelling and Bayesian stats. Junior group leader at @ImperialImmuno

Joined November 2010
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Cancer is an evolutionary disease, but does knowing a cancer’s evolutionary past help predict its future? Out today in @Nature, we learnt the evolution of 2000 lymphoid cancers and found it was highly correlated with clinical outcomes! (1/7, link below)
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How long after a mutation does it take for a cell to progress to cancer? In Barrett’s oesophagus, we found that CNAs occurred decades prior to cancer diagnosis, and that their rate is more prognostic than CNA burden alone doi.org/10.64898/2026.10.16.… (1/6)
Kaplan-Meier curves showing the fraction of patients with Barrett's oesophagus without genome doubling who progress to oesophageal adenocarcinoma, comparing the burden of aneuploidy vs the rate at which CNAs occur.

ALT Kaplan-Meier curves showing the fraction of patients with Barrett's oesophagus without genome doubling who progress to oesophageal adenocarcinoma, comparing the burden of aneuploidy vs the rate at which CNAs occur.

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In non-WGD samples, we found that there was a marked increase in CNA rate in both OAC and BO samples who would progress compared to non-progressors. Remarkably, the CNA rate was much better at identifying progressors than CNA burden (5/6)
(left) Box plots comparing the inferred rate at which timetable CNA gains were accrued in oesophageal adenocarcinoma patients, compared to Barrett's oesophagus patients who did vs did not go on the progress to cancer. (right, top) Comparison of the concordance index for how well aneuploidy burden vs the inferred CNA rate stratifies Barrett oesophagus patient's for their risk of progression. (right, bottom) Forest plot showing the results of a multivariate Cox regression including both CNA rate and aneuploidy burden, demonstrating CNA rate is prognostic for progression even controlling for aneuploidy burden.

ALT (left) Box plots comparing the inferred rate at which timetable CNA gains were accrued in oesophageal adenocarcinoma patients, compared to Barrett's oesophagus patients who did vs did not go on the progress to cancer. (right, top) Comparison of the concordance index for how well aneuploidy burden vs the inferred CNA rate stratifies Barrett oesophagus patient's for their risk of progression. (right, bottom) Forest plot showing the results of a multivariate Cox regression including both CNA rate and aneuploidy burden, demonstrating CNA rate is prognostic for progression even controlling for aneuploidy burden.

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Massive thanks to all the people who contributed @Sanroman_Fern, @heather_eGrant, @smilite_, @wchcross, @abobbyandrews, @cmaley, @AndreaSottoriva, @gcaravagna, Thomas Paulson and @trevoragraham (6/6)
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In non-WGD samples, we found that there was a marked increase in the CNA rate of both OAC and BO samples who would progress compared to non-progressors. Remarkably, the CNA rate was much better at identifying progressors than CNA burden (5/6)
(left) Box plots comparing the inferred rate at which timetable CNA gains were accrued in oesophageal adenocarcinoma patients, compared to Barrett's oesophagus patients who did vs did not go on the progress to cancer. (right, top) Comparison of the concordance index for how well aneuploidy burden vs the inferred CNA rate stratifies Barrett oesophagus patient's for their risk of progression. (right, bottom) Forest plot showing the results of a multivariate Cox regression including both CNA rate and aneuploidy burden, demonstrating CNA rate is prognostic for progression even controlling for aneuploidy burden.

ALT (left) Box plots comparing the inferred rate at which timetable CNA gains were accrued in oesophageal adenocarcinoma patients, compared to Barrett's oesophagus patients who did vs did not go on the progress to cancer. (right, top) Comparison of the concordance index for how well aneuploidy burden vs the inferred CNA rate stratifies Barrett oesophagus patient's for their risk of progression. (right, bottom) Forest plot showing the results of a multivariate Cox regression including both CNA rate and aneuploidy burden, demonstrating CNA rate is prognostic for progression even controlling for aneuploidy burden.

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Massive thanks to all the people who contributed @Sanroman_Fern, @heather_eGrant, @smilite_, @wchcross, @abobbyandrews, @cmaley, @AndreaSottoriva, @gcaravagna, Thomas Paulson and @trevoragraham (6/6)
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Calum Gabbutt retweeted
William Cross@wchcrossJun 9
Recently completed your MSc in Bioinformatics? Mathematics postgrad wishing to gain experience of medical research? Looking for a PhD in computational biology? Consider applying for the fully funded position with me at @UniofReading: jobs.ac.uk/job/DRV004/phd-st…
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How do epithelial stem cells in our intestine evolve over our lifetime? In our new pre-print, @PBousquets and team used fluctuating methylation barcodes to find out!
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PHYFUM is therefore a low-cost method to uncover evolution of healthy glandular tissues, and we hope to use the method to develop evolutionary biomarkers of neoplastic progression.
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Big thanks to @PBousquets, @dmallo_phylo, @trevoragraham, @cmaley, Heather Grant and Darryl Shibata
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If you're interested in integrating theory and data to better understand how cancers evolve, register for the 2nd CANPOP meeting! Featuring a keynote talk from Martin Taylor (@mst_paralogue) and a series of selected short talks, what better way to spend a Monday afternoon?
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Registration is free: forms.gle/jSxB1TdPURRaBH8K7 To submit an abstract for a short presentation, please enter it during the registration process and submit by Fri 10th April at 5pm. Registration will remain open after the 10th, but abstracts will no longer be accepted.

Cancer Population Genetics Club (CANPOP) - Meeting 2 - Registration Form

Event Timing: June 15th, 2026 13:00 (UK time) Event Address: 123 Old Brompton Rd, South Kensington, London SW7 3RP CANPOP is a new initiative of the Centre for Evolution and Cancer at the ICR in and...

docs.google.com
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Calum Gabbutt retweeted
Jamie Blundell@jrblundellFeb 24
In 1999, Tom Maniatis discovered something remarkable: neurons achieve self-avoidance via stochastic methylation of the protocadherin gene cluster. We've just discovered this locus is an evolvable in-vivo barcode across the human tissues: biorxiv.org/cgi/content/shor… 🧵
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