William Hill
drwilliamhill.bsky.social
William Hill
@drwilliamhill.bsky.social
Cancer cell biologist | Somatic evolution and cancer initiation | postdoc @SwantonLab @TheCrick. Views my own
Reposted by William Hill
Paul Nurse describing the main job of a PI

(From ‘The Thinking Game’, 2024)
October 31, 2025 at 8:45 AM
6 incredible years. So grateful for the opportunity to work with such brilliant people. What an adventure. Goodbye @crick.ac.uk
September 30, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by William Hill
To better treat cancer, we need to understand its underlying biology. Despite decades of research, some fundamental questions remain unanswered. One is why certain key tumor suppressor or oncogenes lead to cancer predominantly in single tissue: e.g. Rb in the retina, or APC in the colon 1/n 🧪
July 26, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Thrilled to announce I'm moving to Manchester to lead the Cancer Origins group! If you're interested in how mutations and exposures drive tumourigenesis — come join the adventure
We are recruiting two exciting #Postdoctoral roles:

🧪 Work with @clausjorgensen.bsky.social on targeting the tumour #microenvironment in #PancreaticCancer

🥼 Join @drwilliamhill.bsky.social to study air pollution & #LungCancer

Full details of both positions at:
www.cruk.manchester.ac.uk/careers/
June 6, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Reposted by William Hill
William Hill is presenting his work on air pollutants in lung adenocarcinoma in a fascinating session exploring ageing and environmental factors in the development and spread of lung cancer.

#AACR25 | @drwilliamhill.bsky.social | @crick.ac.uk
April 27, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Imaging mass cytometry of 122 early stage lung adeno patients explores the balance of of the tumour microenvironment and changes in malignant cell fate.
Simultaneous immunomodulation and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition drives lung adenocarcinoma progression
Lung cancer remains the deadliest cancer in the United States, with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) as its most prevalent subtype. While computed tomography (CT)-based screening has improved early detectio...
www.biorxiv.org
February 25, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by William Hill
New to bluesky, but I’m excited to share my work over the last few years with @jbuenrostro.bsky.social! Chronic inflammation creates an epigenetic memory in colonic stem cells, priming them for tumor growth: tinyurl.com/ColitisNagar.... Here’s a walkthrough of what we found (🧵)
February 18, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Reposted by William Hill
It is with great sadness to hear that the great Tim Radford has died. He was, unequivocally, the best science journalist, and a kind and generous man. I used his Manifesto for the Simple Scribe in lectures for student this very week. It’s faultless.

www.theguardian.com/science/blog...
A manifesto for the simple scribe – my 25 commandments for journalists | Tim Radford
Former Guardian science editor, letters editor, arts editor and literary editor Tim Radford has condensed his journalistic experience into a handy set of rules for aspiring hacks
www.theguardian.com
February 12, 2025 at 11:20 AM
I had a fantastic day at the CRUK workshop last week at the intersection between aging and cancer.
February 4, 2025 at 2:03 PM
That's cool
How exercise during pregnancy can improve metabolic health of offspring: a key mediator (Serpina3c) from mother's white adipose tissue gets into fetal circulation, suppresses inflammation, as demonstrated in the mouse model
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
January 31, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by William Hill
At individual level those who vape more likely to go on to smoke (but causality not proven) but at population level higher levels of youth vaping could mean lower levels of youth smoking - really important work from @jhb19.bsky.social showing how carefully we need to keep the evidence under review
New expansive CRUK-funded systematic review led by the brilliant @jhb19.bsky.social on youth transitions between vaping & smoking doi.org/10.1111/add..... It’s complex: there’s potential inverse associations between vaping & smoking at population level but positive association at individual level.
Electronic cigarettes and subsequent cigarette smoking in young people: A systematic review
Aims To assess the evidence for a relationship between the use of e-cigarettes and subsequent smoking in young people (≤29 years), and whether this differs by demographic characteristics. Methods ...
doi.org
January 31, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by William Hill
Today our study using copy number alterations (CNAs) from low-coverage WGS to predict FUTURE colorectal cancer in patients with IBD is published, details in thread! 1/5
gut.bmj.com/content/earl...
Low-coverage whole genome sequencing of low-grade dysplasia strongly predicts advanced neoplasia risk in ulcerative colitis
Background The risk of developing advanced neoplasia (AN; colorectal cancer and/or high-grade dysplasia) in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients with a low-grade dysplasia (LGD) lesion is variable and dif...
gut.bmj.com
January 30, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by William Hill
One of my frustrations with our work to understand the causes of #cancer #cachexia as part of Cancer Grand Challenges Team #CANCAN is the limitation of animal models that don't reflect the realities of the patient population. This development helps. #LCSM #lungcancer

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Concurrent PIK3CA mutant drives cachexia through inflammatory signaling in EGFR mutant lung cancer
PIK3CA mutation is frequently concurrent with known oncogenic drivers such as EGFR mutation in lung cancer, raising an interesting question about its real function. Cachexia is a systemic disease invo...
www.biorxiv.org
January 23, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by William Hill
Ultrasensitive ctDNA detection for preoperative disease stratification in early-stage lung adenocarcinoma

https://buff.ly/4akMe3C

While further prospective validation is required, this approach could significantly enhance risk stratification and treatment planning in early-stage LUAD.
January 15, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by William Hill
Ever wonder if the innate immune system protects against cancer in premalignancy? My lab reports that the inflammasome in bone marrow stroma suppresses Ras in preleukemic stem cells restraining lymphomagenesis.

Happy to share here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A stromal inflammasome Ras safeguard against Myc-driven lymphomagenesis - Nature Immunology
Blander and colleagues report a homeostatic regulatory effect played by inflammasomes in the bone marrow stromal compartment that suppresses premalignant stages of lymphomagenesis.
www.nature.com
January 6, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Reposted by William Hill
I'm delighted to announce that the Pharma Proteomics Project will commence full-scale proteomic profiling of the UK Biobank in 2025. We have selected the Olink Proteomics Explore HT platform and Ultima Genomics UG 100 sequencers for this unprecedented study.

www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/learn-more-a...
Launch of world’s most significant protein study set to usher in new understanding for medicine
www.ukbiobank.ac.uk
January 10, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by William Hill
"unlike type 1 immune responses, type 2 immunity is perceived as a potential promoter of tumorigenesis. Emerging evidence challenges this perspective, painting a more nuanced picture in which type 2 immunity might protect against or even actively suppress tumour growth and progression." #ImmunoSky
Reinventing type 2 immunity in cancer - Nature
This Review addresses the roles of type 2 immunity in cancer and the potential for cancer immunotherapies targeting this pathway.
www.nature.com
January 9, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by William Hill
Acquisition of discrete immune suppressive barriers contributes to the initiation and progression of preinvasive to invasive human lung cancer. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.31.630523v1
January 1, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Reposted by William Hill
Beyond excited to share that the main work of my PhD on how aspartate signaling drives metastasis is finally out in @nature.com

-> go.nature.com/4gCYtuL

A huge thank to the @fendtlab.bsky.social and all our collaborators for the terrific team work 🙏

A brief 🧵
Aspartate signalling drives lung metastasis via alternative translation - Nature
Aspartate in the tumour environment activates the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor in cancer cells to induce cellular programmes that increase the aggressiveness of metastasis.
go.nature.com
January 1, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by William Hill
2024 was a year of exciting discoveries and scientific discussions! A thread 🪡 of this years’ publications from our lab 👇🏼
December 31, 2024 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by William Hill
Breathing polluted air increases the risk of osteoporosis. #Science

Open Access
www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
December 28, 2024 at 2:48 AM
Reposted by William Hill
New insights for brain aging via spatial clocks and A.I.: rare, neighboring cells can have big impact (T cells for promoting inflammation + aging; neural stem cells for slowing aging)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
December 18, 2024 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by William Hill
How much do algorithmic and experimental choices drive the accuracy of reconstructing tumour evolution?

In this Cancer Research commentary, @zaccasimo.bsky.social and I discuss a recent Nature Biotech benchmarking paper exploring this question:

bit.ly/3VAMRQs
Tumor Evolution Reconstruction Is Heavily Influenced by Algorithmic and Experimental Choices
Tumor progression is an evolutionary process during which cells acquire distinct genetic alterations. Several cancer evolutionary studies reconstruct this evolutionary process by applying bulk DNA seq...
bit.ly
December 16, 2024 at 11:56 AM