Event Details

5^th November at 13:00-14:00
Onsite event
Lauren 2, Medisiina D

Coffee/tea will be served at 12:45

Prof. Walid T. Khaled, Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, UK
Decoding the earliest steps of BRCA-driven breast tumour initiation: towards rational prevention

Host: Emilia Peuhu (emilia.peuhu@utu.fi)

Those who would like to discuss with Prof. Khaled, please contact the host (emilia.peuhu@utu.fi). Note: Prof. Khaled will serve as the opponent at the doctoral defense of Oona Paavolainen on Friday 6^th November (Medisiina C, Osmo Järvi lecture room at 12.00).

Walid Khaled is Professor of Tumour Initiation at the University of Cambridge. His team studies the earliest stages of tumour initiation at single-cell resolution to enable early detection, prevention and interception of breast cancer. He completed his PhD at Cambridge in 2007, held a Junior Research Fellowship at King’s College and a postdoctoral position at the Sanger Institute, and became a Lecturer in Pharmacology in 2013. His awards include a CRUK Career Establishment Award, a Programme Foundation Award and an ERC Advanced Grant. He co-led the Human Breast Cell Atlas (2024). He is Deputy Director of the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and a Fellow of Magdalene College.

Selected publications

Reed AD, Pensa S, et al. A single-cell atlas enables mapping of homeostatic cellular shifts in the adult human breast. Nature Genetics 2024; 56: 652-662.

Gray GK, et al. Defining breast epithelial cell types in the single-cell era. Developmental Cell 2025; 60: 2218-2236.

Waterhouse M, Lazarus K, et al. CHD8 interacts with BCL11A to induce oncogenic transcription in triple negative breast cancer. EMBO Journal 2025; 44: 3448-3467.

Twigger AJ, et al. Transcriptional changes in the mammary gland during lactation revealed by single cell sequencing of cells from human milk. Nature Communications 2022; 13: 562.

Bach K, Pensa S, et al. Time-resolved single-cell analysis of Brca1 associated mammary tumourigenesis reveals aberrant differentiation of luminal progenitors. Nature Communications 2021; 12: 1502.

Bach K, Pensa S, et al. Differentiation dynamics of mammary epithelial cells revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing. Nature Communications 2017; 8: 2128.