Speaker: Dr. Tim Coorens
Group Leader - Somatic evolution and phylogenetics Lab, EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Hinxton, UK
Presentation
Host: Dr. Núria López-Bigas, Group Leader - Biomedical Genomics - IRB Barcelona
Node: Computational Biology / Preclinical Models of Cancer
Date: Wednesday 27 May 2026, 12:00h
Place: Auditorium Room - PCB
From fertilisation onwards, somatic mutations accumulate in our cells. These mutations play a crucial role in cancer and other diseases, and studying their causes, patterns and consequences can shed light on the origins of disease. In addition, somatic mutations are natural barcodes that delineate the ancestries of cells and allow for lineage tracing of cell fate, all the way back to the zygote. I will outline recent work from the group that highlight these aspects, including the reconstruction of human fetal development from somatic mutations, new avenues for spatial genomics and single cell DNA sequencing, and ongoing work of the Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues (SMaHT) Network.
IMPORTANT: For attendees outside the PCB community you must register at least 24h before the seminar.
The weekly seminars at IRB Barcelona are scientific events primarily addressed to the Institute’s research community and professionals in the biomedical field. Attendance is intended exclusively for individuals with a genuine and justified scientific interest in the seminar content. Registration should not be used to request supporting documents for visa or immigration purposes. For participants residing outside Spain, in-person attendance requires a formal invitation issued by an IRB Barcelona research group or department. Without such an invitation, access to the institute cannot be guaranteed. IRB Barcelona reserves the right to review and verify all seminar registrations.