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brooks-lab.bsky.social
Lucy Brooks
@brooks-lab.bsky.social
98 followers 190 following 7 posts
Junior Group Leader at the University of Oxford
Interested in brain cancer plasticity and therapy resistance

https://www.oncology.ox.ac.uk/team/lucy-brooks

www.brookslab.co.uk
Posts Replies Media Videos
brooks-lab.bsky.social
Excited to share I’ve recently started as a group leader at the University of Oxford @oncology.ox.ac.uk, @ox.ac.uk

Feeling grateful for the people who’ve helped me get here, and looking forward to growing a lab that asks important questions (and hopefully finds some answers).
#NewPI #CancerResearch
October 12, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Reposted by Lucy Brooks
nature.com
The academic community has looked at how artificial-intelligence tools help researchers to write papers, but not how they distort the literature scientists choose to cite, says Zhicheng Lin

go.nature.com/45X3Imr
AI chatbots are already biasing research — we must establish guidelines for their use now
The academic community has looked at how artificial-intelligence tools help researchers to write papers, but not how they distort the literature scientists choose to cite.
go.nature.com
September 9, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by Lucy Brooks
ox.ac.uk
NEW: An Oxford report warns that misleading media coverage is shaping public debate on immigration and human rights.

The study finds the ECHR is frequently misreported in deportation cases, fueling misconceptions that erode trust in the legal system.

🧵 [1/8]
Silhouettes of three people in front of a weathered British flag, with the headline: Misrepresentations around human rights and immigration fuelling calls to quit ECHR, Oxford report finds
September 4, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Lucy Brooks
mcclellandlab.bsky.social
Calling all non-scientists interested in asking questions about cancer research for our new podcast-in-making!!! Please message your questions or contact me for more details 🤩
September 8, 2025 at 7:10 PM
brooks-lab.bsky.social
Next up on my reading list!
michaelemann.bsky.social Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · Sep 2
#ScienceUnderSiege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World
by @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social & yours truly,
comes out one week from today! 🙂
Preorder now:
Barnes & Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/science-un...
Publisher: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/micha...
kirkus review: SCIENCE UNDER SIEGE HOW TO FIGHT THE FIVE MOST POWERFUL FORCES THAT THREATEN OUR WORLD by Michael E. Mann & Peter J. Hotez ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 2025 A necessary and propulsive argument that offers optimism in the face of one of the world’s most destructive forces. Pursuing science and truth in the age of disinformation. On the tail of a historic deadly pandemic, in the midst of a climate crisis that threatens the world, perhaps the greatest danger is the overwhelming rise of disinformation that threatens to crush and diminish science that might save us. With that, two renowned scientists—climatologist Mann and pediatrician and global health expert Hotez—who are veterans of the disinformation wars have come together to create a work that seeks to provide a way out. The authors identify what they call “the p’s”—five key forces creating a dangerous modern realm of anti-science: “the plutocrats, the authoritarian petrostates (assisted by polluters and the politicians who advocate for them), the ‘pros’ who use their professional (or in some cases scholarly) credentials to deceive or promote unsupported contrarian views, the propagandists who amplify them on social media and other venues, and, increasingly, the press, including even the mainstream press.” The narrative reveals, in compelling detail, how these forces weave a complicated web of public deception and political danger in the face of some of humanity’s greatest challenges. With clear-eyed prose moving through chapters that explain each of these actors, the authors provide a clear, persuasive road map to fight back against the forces that diminish and dismiss science. The result is an empowering work in a world that can often feel lost to untruths. “While there is urgency—unlike any we’ve ever known—there is still agency,” they write. “We can still avert disaster if we can understand the nature of the mounting anti-science threat and formulate a strategy to counter it.” A necessary and pro… book cover
September 8, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by Lucy Brooks
gutmannlab.bsky.social
Exciting news! Our new paper is out in Neuron! We discovered how neurons drive brain tumor growth through aberrant glutamate–tyrosine kinase signaling, uncovering novel mechanisms that shape tumor progression. Grateful to our team & collaborators for making this breakthrough possible! 🧠✨
Aberrant coupling of glutamate and tyrosine kinase receptors enables neuronal control of brain-tumor growth
Anastasaki and colleagues establish a previously unknown glutamate growth dependency in pediatric low-grade brain tumors (gliomas). Glioma cells hijack normal neuron-glial molecular circuits present d...
www.cell.com
September 3, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Lucy Brooks
nature.com
A highly lethal type of brain tumour often steals key nutrients to aid its aggressive growth — a habit that can be exploited to slow the cancer’s spread

go.nature.com/4p5JspX
Brain tumours in mice grow more slowly when starved of key amino acid
Some glioblastomas steal serine from their environment — a weakness that opens the door to treatment.
go.nature.com
September 3, 2025 at 4:23 PM
brooks-lab.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Cancer research ‘set back years’ as visa fees drive scien...
With vital studies being shelved and foreign experts turning down jobs, leading charity urges ministers to act
observer.co.uk
August 29, 2025 at 9:04 AM
brooks-lab.bsky.social
New Nature paper from the Parrinello lab

Clements et al. reveal how axonal injury can drive brain tumor growth. #cancer #neuroscience

Having been a postdoc in the lab, I saw the colossal effort behind this — huge congratulations to everyone involved! 👏

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Axonal injury is a targetable driver of glioblastoma progression - Nature
Axonal injury, induced in the white matter by expansion of early tumour cells, is a key driver of glioblastoma progression.
www.nature.com
August 20, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by Lucy Brooks
jcb.org
ReSCU-Nets: Recurrent U-Nets for segmentation of three-dimensional #microscopy data. New tools developed by Raymond Hawkins, Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez (@rodrigofg.bsky.social) and colleagues @utoronto.ca: rupress.org/jcb/article/...

#Cytoskeleton #SystemsBiology #ComputationalBiology #Development
August 18, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Lucy Brooks
ox.ac.uk
NEW: A new study by @oxfordcsae.bsky.social reveals that giving unconditional cash transfers to pregnant women in rural Kenya significantly reduces infant and child mortality.

Read more ⬇️
www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-08...
Study finds giving pregnant women cash transfers cuts infant
A new study by Associate Professor Dennis Egger (Department of Economics and Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford) and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley
www.ox.ac.uk
August 18, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Lucy Brooks
nature.com
Scientists are seeking to decipher the role of non-coding DNA in the human genome, helped by a suite of artificial-intelligence tools.

go.nature.com/41O1Utb
Beyond AlphaFold: how AI is decoding the grammar of the genome
Scientists are seeking to decipher the role of non-coding DNA in the human genome, helped by a suite of artificial-intelligence tools.
go.nature.com
August 18, 2025 at 6:45 PM
brooks-lab.bsky.social
📣We’re hiring a Postdoc!
Join my new lab at the University of Oxford to investigate therapy resistance in brain cancer.

⏰Deadline: 16 June 2025

Apply 👇
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Boosts appreciated!

#PostdocJobs #CancerResearch #BrainCancer
https://my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecruit…
May 19, 2025 at 3:03 PM
brooks-lab.bsky.social
Following Trump’s research funding cuts, the UK has a prime opportunity to attract top global talent, yet we’re deterring them with high immigration costs.

observer.co.uk/news/politic...
The UK is paying the price for world’s most expensive visas | The Observer
Competing political and economic goals on immigration are resulting in the loss of valuable skills and talent in the UK
observer.co.uk
May 13, 2025 at 12:52 AM
brooks-lab.bsky.social
Completely agree. However, brilliant technicians are currently being lost due to limited career paths. Expanding opportunities would not only strengthen science but also support EDI - low PhD stipends often exclude those without financial safety nets.
May 10, 2025 at 12:50 AM