On Tuesday 12 November 2024, the "la Caixa" Foundation announced the 29 new biomedical research projects of excellence that will be conducted at various research centres, hospitals, and universities in Spain and Portugal. Among the projects being funded, one has the participation of IDIBAPS.
The project, titled "Better understanding metastatic tumour cell plasticity to fight breast cancer", is led by Roger Gomis, group leader at the IRB, with the participation of Aleix Prat, director of the Hospital Clínic’s Institute of Cancer and Blood Diseases, head of the IDIBAPS Translational genomics and targeted therapies in solid tumours group and Senior Lecturer at the University of Barcelona.
Thanks to the grant worth €664,165.90, the team will study in depth the factors that confer adaptability to metastatic tumour cells and will try to find new ways to prevent it, with the goal of slowing down the process of metastasis development and preventing associated deaths.
The most common cause of mortality in breast cancer is not the primary tumour, but metastases that occur in other organs. In order for tumour cells to colonise a distant tissue or organ, they need great plasticity to successfully adapt to new environments. Understanding the mechanisms that allow them to produce new metastases is crucial in order to be able to design therapies aimed at blocking them and thus preventing the spread of metastasis.
Since the inception of the CaixaResearch 2018 programme, the bank has allocated nearly €146 million to 200 research projects selected by an international committee of experts. This seventh edition, in which 580 proposals for basic, clinical and translational research have been submitted, is especially aimed at addressing health challenges in different areas: infectious diseases, oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic related diseases and neurosciences.
