General information

Despite the numerous advances in cancer biology, progress in the treatment of the advanced disease has been underwhelming, which negatively affects the clinical outcome of patients. Immunotherapy has emerged as the fifth pillar for the treatment of tumor growth, metastases, and recurrence, which has greatly 89 STRATEGIC PLAN 2024-2027 improved the lifespan of cancer patients. However, despite the encouraging results, some tumors barely respond to immunotherapy due to side effects, drug resistance, immunosuppression, or lack of tumor immunogenicity, limiting its efficacy and durability. Overall, our goal is to develop novel, or improved, targeted therapies against patient-specific biomarkers and provide alternative immunotherapeutic approaches to broaden their use to a wider number of patients and efficacy.

To achieve this aim, our group develops the following research lines:

Biomimetic nanomedicine and immunotherapy

Active targeting by surface-modified nanoplatforms enables a more precise and elevated accumulation of nanoparticles within the tumor, thereby enhancing drug delivery and efficacy for a successful cancer treatment. However, surface functionalization involves complex procedures that increase costs and timelines, presenting challenges for clinical implementation. Biomimetic nanoparticles, coated with cell-derived membranes, have emerged as unique drug delivery platforms that overcome the limitations of actively targeted nanoplatforms. Our group is focused on the development of immune-driven biomimetic nanoparticles that mimic pathways linked to the cancer patient´s immune system to specifically and effectively deliver antitumor treatments (not only the conventional ones but also those derived from our investigations) and boost immunotherapy.

Personalized targeted therapies to reduce tumor progression

In the era of precision oncology, by studying genomics in cancer patients we will define novel prognostic and predictive biomarkers linked to cancer stem cells, metastasis, recurrence, and treatment resistance. We will continue our investigations to deepen the role of ATF4 and NDRG1 as biomarkers of tumor progression in triple-negative breast cancer as molecular targets involved in cancer stem cells, metastasis, and tumor recurrence. Based on our previous studies, we develop novel therapeutic approaches to target ATF4 and NDRG1 by drug repositioning or CRISPR/Cas9. Additionally, we pursue finding alternative therapies based on compounds of natural origin such as hydroxytyrosol from olive oil or β- lapachone from lapacho tree.

Development of preclinical models for precision oncology

To fully address a personalized anticancer strategy, we develop cancer patientderived organoids (PDOs) and xenografts (PDXs) as models to validate our investigations and better understand the individual specificities (at pathologic and genomic levels) of each patient.