Appointment of Miriam Cuatrecasas, Group leader (R4)
Research and knowledge of tissue is the base for understanding all forms of disease

Current research

Problem

The development and progression of human neoplasms and inflammatory diseases involve genetic and molecular mechanisms which can be learned about through digital and molecular techniques applied to tissues.  

Approach

The technological platforms applied to research into inflammatory diseases and human tumours enable the knowledge generated by basic research to be transferred to clinical practice. 

For this reason, on a diagnostic level, applied molecular pathology techniques are used, including genetics, epigenetics, proteomics, glycomics, and digital pathology with artificial intelligence algorithms, spectral microscopy, and ex vivo confocal microscopy.

Impact

Thanks to the identification of therapeutic targets, the group has distinguished parameters that enable improvement of the diagnosis and prognosis of inflammatory and neoplastic disease. 

The group is a leader in the molecular diagnosis of lung and breast cancer and molecular nodal staging in colorectal cancer, as well as in the underlying molecular mechanisms in cutaneous and renal inflammatory processes, molecular characterisation techniques in melanoma and tumours of the central nervous system.