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Avon awards one million Euros for research against breast cancer and funds an IDIBAPS project on the role of ZEB proteins

Avon Cosmetics, leader in direct sales of perfumes and cosmetics, sponsors the world's largest private foundation supporting cancer research. Over the last two decades, Avon has awarded over 625 million Euros worldwide, 4 million in Spain alone, to fund research in this disease. Last November 6, took place at the Caixa Forum in Madrid the First Avon Awards ceremony. The event, conducted by the actress Mabel Lozano, began with speeches by the President of the company in Spain, France and Germany, Mr. Formisano Gennaro, and Dr. José Ignacio Fernández Vera, director of the Spanish Foundation for Research and Technology (FECYT). Avon’s President highlighted the company's leadership in support of research against breast cancer. The jury, formed by five experts in the area, introduced the five researchers responsible for the selected projects which received in total 1 million Euros. Each of the awarded principal investigators explained the objectives of their projects.

One of the selected projects was the one presented by the Group of Regulation of Gene Expression at IDIBAPS, also an ICREA group, which received one of the most important awards in this call (285,000 Euros). The project, to be developed over the next three years and entitled "Identification of gene expression profiles regulated by the microRNA/ZEB1-ZEB2 pathway and its role in the invasive and metastatic tumour activity and in the response to treatment ", investigates the role of ZEB1 and ZEB2 in tumour progression, from early stages of oncogenic transformation to its eventual metastasis with special attention to the role of ZEB proteins determining response to treatment. ZEB proteins have recently gained great relevance in molecular oncology as they not only promote tumour invasiveness and metastasis but also regulate cancer stem cells and tumour response to chemotherapy.

In this first edition of the Avon Awards were also awarded the projects presented by Dr. J. Arribas, of the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Dr. G. Moreno-Bueno, MD Anderson Foundation International, Dr. L. García Estévez and Dr. M. Calderón, of the García Campal Cancer Center / CNIO, and Dr. I. Marshal, of the University of Huelva.

The ceremony was closed by the CSR manager of Avon Cosmetics, Ms. Tanya de la Sierra, who highlighted the work that Avon has developed in the fight against breast cancer funding research projects totalling over 800 million dollars in morethan50 countries worldwide.