Daniel Brewer

Cancer Bioinformatician, prof in medical bioinformatics and genomics @ Norwich Medical School, UEA. @danbrewer.bsky.socia

[Stephanie Smith @dr_steph_smith]

Publication alert 📣 First paper of 2026! 🌟
We review recent developments in molecular & genetic biomarkers in prostate cancer active surveillance. @danbrewer
Open access 🧬👇
https://t.co/RE3sGuJ0IL
@MDPIOpenAccess

[Daniel Brewer @danbrewer]

The annual Norwich Medical School Cancer Genetics Team Movember bake sale is on! Come along to the Bob Champion Research and Education building and feed yourself with some tasty treats. @ueamed @movemberuk

[Daniel Brewer @danbrewer]

One day to go. An exciting opportunity has arisen for a senior bioinformatician to join the Cancer Genetics team on the project “Identifying patients with aggressive prostate cancer by detecting molecular subtypes in urine”. 3 years starting in Feb 2026.

https://t.co/LgwChntCnM

[Daniel Brewer @danbrewer]

Come and join the Cancer Genetics team in the lovely Norwich. We have a three year position for a senior bioinformatician starting in Feb 2026. Click the link for further details.

https://t.co/LgwChntCnM

#postdoc @ueamed @UEAResearch #bioinformatics #cancer

[Daniel Brewer @danbrewer]

A one year opportunity has arisen for a lab-based molecular scientist to join the Cancer Genetics team on the @ProstateUKProfs project “Identifying patients with aggressive prostate cancer by detecting molecular subtypes in urine”. Starting Feb 2026.

https://t.co/nnbFmv05P2

[Daniel Brewer @danbrewer]

New studentship available in the cancer genetics team at @UeaMed, UK. This PhD is about investigating whether the presence of bacteria is directly causing prostate cancer development. Feb 2025. Stipend and fees available to those that are eligible.

https://t.co/dYZK36o2WH

#PhD

[Daniel Brewer @danbrewer]

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a senior bioinformatician to join the Cancer Genetics team on the Prostate Cancer UK funded project “Identifying patients with aggressive prostate cancer by detecting molecular subtypes in urine”. 3 years post.

https://t.co/LgwChntCnM

[Daniel Brewer @danbrewer]

@CancerInNorwich @GenomicsEngland Thank you to all the study funders, participants and co-authors.

[Daniel Brewer @danbrewer]

A new paper is out from our research team at the Norwich Medical School at @uniofeastanglia titled "The landscape of microbial associations in human cancer" available from https://t.co/KPQ4SnyAN9.

Led by @AbrahamGihawi

[Daniel Brewer @danbrewer]

@CancerInNorwich
This work is focussed around the @genomicsengland 100,000 genome dataset

A great summary from Abraham can be found here:https://t.co/jqCB5ETkkz

An interesting article in Science on the controversy this helps address can be found here: https://t.co/0XKTWxZSHB

[Abraham @AbrahamGihawi]

Finding microbes in cancer sequencing data has been controversial. Are we seeing real biology… or just contamination + batch effects?

[Steven Salzberg 💙💛 @StevenSalzberg1]

We're still not finding any good evidence for a microbiome in any cancer type: see our new paper in @ScienceTM led by PhD student @YuchenGe1 https://t.co/ggBa8Isps1 and the accompanying news piece, https://t.co/JPdAKKbFvP

[Abraham @AbrahamGihawi]

Many thanks to @danbrewer for your support and guidance through the years and to the other co-authors, funders, @GenomicsEngland and the patients that made this work possible

[Abraham @AbrahamGihawi]

We demonstrate some microbial patterns hold real clinical promise — from detecting infectious disease to uncovering potential prognostic markers.

Read more here 👉https://t.co/RonF7jwbIo

[Abraham @AbrahamGihawi]

We also see the same patterns in other datasets:
📊 PCAWG
📊 TCGA - Cleaner signals produced by a fantastic paper today from Peter Ge, @StevenSalzberg1
& team)

https://t.co/F6TxQf7tRS

[Abraham @AbrahamGihawi]

The results hold up across methods:
✅ Conventional statistics
✅ Machine learning
✅ Dimensionality reduction

[Abraham @AbrahamGihawi]

In our new paper, we dig into Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes Project. We find distinct microbial signals in colorectal cancer (and to a lesser extent oral cancer)

[Abraham @AbrahamGihawi]

Some microbes are well known in cancer: 🦠 Hepatitis → liver cancer 🦠 HPV → cervical & oral cancers But beyond these, can microbial DNA really help distinguish tumour types?

[Abraham @AbrahamGihawi]

Finding microbes in cancer sequencing data has been controversial. Are we seeing real biology… or just contamination + batch effects?

[Oxford University Press @OxUniPress]

And the official 2024 Oxford Word of the Year is... Brain rot 📱🧠 #OxfordWOTY

[Daniel Brewer @danbrewer]

Exciting news article by our own Clinical Fellow Stephanie Smith on how dogs might be able to smell prostate cancer.

https://t.co/vK28GEsY3r