AECC Awards €7.35 Million to 61 Madrid Cancer Research Projects, CNIO Secures Over €3 Million
核心洞察
The Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC (搜索)) is funding 61 new cancer research projects in Madrid with €7.35 million, with CNIO (搜索) receiving more than €3 million across a dozen studies.
Funded projects span improving immunotherapy and chemotherapy, preventing tumor relapse, targeting brain micrometastases via liquid biopsy, and understanding links between asthma and pancreatic cancer (搜索) risk.
Gonçalo Bernardes's team aims to develop small proteins for simultaneous tumor imaging and targeted radiotherapy, potentially enabling theranostic approaches for solid tumors.
The Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC (搜索)) has announced €7.35 million in funding for 61 new cancer research projects across Madrid, with the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO (搜索)) securing more than €3 million to advance a dozen studies spanning immunotherapy enhancement, chemotherapy optimization, early brain metastasis (搜索) detection, and cancer prevention.
The 2025 AECC (搜索) grants are designed to cover all stages of the research career and are guided by several strategic priorities: increasing funding with a special focus on low-survival cancers; attracting research talent to promote job stability for scientists; and boosting innovation and clinical research so that results reach patients. The program also aims to foster the participation of Spanish researchers in international collaborative research networks.
Theranostic proteins for solid tumor imaging and treatment
Gonçalo Bernardes's group at CNIO (搜索) is developing small proteins designed in the laboratory to precisely locate cancer. These engineered proteins penetrate tumors and bind to radioactive compounds, which could enable more accurate tumor imaging or the targeted delivery of radiotherapy, reducing damage to healthy tissue. After evaluating safety, distribution, and efficacy in experimental models, the goal is to move toward first-in-human studies.
Preventing tumor relapse through kinase activation
Research led by Óscar Fernández Capetillo has identified compounds that are particularly toxic to cancer cells that survive initial treatment—cells that often contribute to tumor recurrence with a worse prognosis. Notably, these compounds act in the opposite manner to their original design: they were thought to inhibit certain kinases, but are now understood to activate them. This insight opens the door to a new type of chemotherapy based on kinase activation, aimed at maximizing the effectiveness of initial cancer treatments.
Miniproteins to enhance chemotherapy while reducing toxicity
Felipe Cortés's group will develop a new generation of treatments based on "miniproteins" that block a molecule used by cells to repair part of the damage caused by chemotherapy. Preventing this repair pathway could make treatments more effective at lower doses and less toxic, potentially addressing the severe side effects caused when anticancer drugs damage healthy cells.
Glutamate (搜索) and liver cancer immunotherapy
Nabil Djouder's team has identified a type of immune cell that plays a key role in liver regeneration and can be influenced by glutamate (搜索), a molecule present in the diet. Since hepatocellular carcinoma (搜索) usually develops in people with chronic liver disease where the immune system is weakened—reducing immunotherapy effectiveness—this project aims to decipher how glutamate activates the immune system to fight liver cancer, ultimately optimizing immunotherapeutic approaches.
Eliminating brain metastasis (搜索) before detection
Manuel Valiente's group aims to eliminate brain metastasis (搜索) even before it can be detected with current methods, targeting so-called micrometastases or early metastatic lesions. To identify patients with micrometastases, they will develop a specific liquid biopsy using blood and cerebrospinal fluid, working with animal models and patient cohorts. The goal is to use this approach, together with targeted treatment of micrometastases, to ultimately prevent brain metastasis.
Bladder cancer (搜索) aggressiveness and muscle interactions
Eleonora Lapi's research suggests that muscle tissue may contribute to bladder tumor aggressiveness by sending signals that enhance tumor progression when tumors invade the muscle surrounding the bladder. This project aims to understand how interactions between cancer cells and muscle cells promote tumor advancement, with the goal of identifying predictive markers for invasiveness and discovering new therapeutic targets.
Asthma and pancreatic cancer (搜索) risk
Francisco X. Real's group has shown in mice that some types of asthma may protect against the development of pancreatic cancer (搜索), with epidemiological studies also supporting this association. In close collaboration with María Casanova's group, this project aims to identify the molecular mechanisms underlying this link.
Innovative immunotherapies for solid tumors and brain tumors
Grants awarded to Patricia Hernández, Jaime Franco, and Daniel Salas support the development of innovative immunotherapies for solid tumors based on modifying a patient's T lymphocytes in the laboratory to enhance their ability to recognize and destroy cancer cells more efficiently. Additionally, the company STAB Therapeutics (搜索), based on research by Luis Álvarez Vallina, head of the CNIO (搜索)-HMarBCN Clinical Research Unit in Cancer Immunotherapy, has received funding to develop a new cellular immunotherapy for brain tumors, moving toward a Phase 1 clinical trial.
Pancreatic cancer (搜索) prevention
Juan Carlos López will use mouse models of pancreatic cancer (搜索) to study how risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, or obesity influence inflammation and promote tumor development. Cutting-edge technologies will allow researchers to identify cancer stem cells that drive tumor growth and to understand how individual tumor cells respond to inflammatory events and develop treatment resistance.
The AECC (搜索) has also awarded training grants at CNIO (搜索) to young researchers Juan Jesús Herguedas and Yolanda García del Castillo through its internship program.