Strategic objectives

• Actively participate in national and international networks and projects in the cancer field, with a focus on the biology of cancer stem cells and the tumour microenvironment.
• Develop new technologies and systems for personalised medicine focused on the identification of drugs that eliminate cancer stem cells.
• Reinforce alliances and collaborations between the business, academic and public health sectors.
• Drive scientific and technological excellence at European level by constituting a fundamental frame of reference in cancer-based studies.

Research lines

• Identification and characterisation of new biomarkers for the detection of CSCs in different solid tumours.
• Identification of key proteins to develop and/or maintain the phenotype of CSCs, which includes characteristics such as pluripotency, epithelium-mesenchymal transition (EMT), oxidative phosphorylation  or chemoresistance.
• Characterisation of the cell niche and the tumour microenvironment that surrounds the CSCs and the communication between both.
• Development of the liquid biopsy for the isolation of blood cancer stem cells for their characterisation and validation as an early cancer detection marker.
• Development of a platform to evaluate the chemosensitivity of cancer stem cells to drugs for application in personalised medicine.