Hard to treat cancers unit

The Hard-to-treat cancers unit is focus on the development of new tools in the area of cancer, especially in tumours as glioblastoma or pancreatic and breast cancer.

The “Chemoresistance and Cancer” group carries out its work through the search for new biomarkers and therapeutic targets of clinical utility for tumors with a poor prognosis, the screening and development of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of glioblastoma, the delivery of antitumor agents in nanoformulations of different nature and the development of new cellular and animal models closer to the patient for the study of the molecular mechanisms involved in the acquisition of resistance to chemo and radiotherapy and the screening of new therapeutic strategies.

The “Molecular Neurobiology and Cancer” group develops its study of glioblastoma (GBM), through three well-defined axes.
– Prevention- Diagnosis: Through the search for new biomarkers that can be identified fundamentally through liquid biopsies.
– Development of new therapies. This line is divided into the development of new drugs, for which metabolomic and transcriptomic analyzes are performed and molecular modeling techniques are used. The second part is the delivery of drugs, through the development of biomimetic nanoparticles and the use of small extracellular vesicles (EVs).
– Development of preclinical models. We work with organoid models and immunocompetent mice. On the other hand, a new GBM model in chicken has been developed.

This group is interested in the identification of new diagnostic tools in gliomas, including the especially aggressive glioblastoma, through the analysis of biomaterial (tissue, primary cultures) from patients: transcriptomics, epigenomics, correlates with clinical variables and possible implementations of artificial intelligence. From the therapeutic point of view, the group is interested in the mechanisms of action of drugs that modulate epigenetics.