CNIO Alumni Newsletter – 1

Dear CNIO Alumni:

This is the first issue of a newsletter we shall send you every two months in the confidence you would like to keep up with the novelties of the center you contribute or have contributed -with your talent, time and passion– to place at the forefront of cancer research.

Here you will find information about the science at CNIO, as well as about the people who do it. Top-level conferences, awards and grants, outreach initiatives, innovation agreements, new arrivals: we offer you the gist of all that matters at CNIO.

Just to begin with, this very month we will have experts Alfonso Valencia and Nuria Oliver talking about Artificial Intelligence and cancer, at the open event we organise on Sept. 24, at CaixaForum Madrid, on the occasion of World Cancer Research Day. It would be wonderful if you could join us.

For more information about this and many other topics, keep reading! We really hope you enjoy the new CNIO Alumni Newsletter.

All the best,

María A. Blasco

“We have discovered a muscle-brain pathway that controls the eagerness to train more when we exercise,” explains Guadalupe Sabio. This result suggest it may be possible to develop drugs for people specially in need of the benefits that come from exercise. In Science Advances.

A too-much-food signal in the cells leads to inflammation and malfunction of the pancreas, liver, kidneys and other organs. A paper by Alejo Efeyan group published in Nature Aging.

A study in Science finally explains how human cells build their microtubules. By Llorca’s lab at CNIO and T. Surrey at CRG. Watch the video.

New evidence published in Molecular Cell by Fernández-Capetillo group at CNIO suggests amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) would be triggered by a similar problem to that occurring in rare diseases called ribosomopathies.

Artificial Intelligence is having a profound impact in oncology already. To help us understand what the AI revolution really means, Alfonso Valencia (BSC) and Nuria Oliver (Ellis Foundation) will give an open lecture on World Cancer Research Day, September 24, at CaixaForum Madrid (11:00 am). Registration open!

Louis Van Gaal and Maria Blasco take the lead roles in a documentary by Morena Films about the coach’s experience as a cancer patient, and about science as a solution. Profits from the sales of an exclusive El Ganso clothing line will be donated to CNIO. Choose your T-shirt!

This conference will discuss recent findings on mechanistic insights of immune escape machinery, immunotolerence and immunomodulation. Organizers: M. Casanova-Acebes, N. Djouder and L. Alvarez-Vallina (CNIO); D. Sancho (CNIC); X. (Cindy) Sun (JEM). Application deadline Oct. 1.

The head of  Weizmann Institute’s Melanoma Immunogenetics Laboratory (Israel), Samuels is the newest recipient of Fundación Occident’s Visiting Scientist Program. She will be working with CNIO Melanoma Group, led by Marisol Soengas.

CNIO is already using AI in areas such as genomic and big data analysis; imaging analysis; prediction of protein structures; and discovery of anti-tumour drugs. The new funding will allow for the creation of 14 new posts for research staff.

Research at the new IdiPAZ-CNIO Mixed Unit for Paediatric Haematology and Oncology Clinical Research focus on “personalised strategies for children and teenagers, to offer them more effective options with fewer side effects,” says head of unit Antonio Pérez-Martínez.

Climate crisis and human memory are intertwined in END (two prologues), the film made by artist Dora García with macroecologist David Nogués-Bravo (Globe Institute, Copenhagen), for CNIO Arte 2024. On display until Octoder 21 at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Madrid).

Contracts with pharma and biotech companies brought CNIO almost 4 MEuros in 2023, “an amazing achievement for a public research institution,” says CNIO’s Director of Innovation Roke I. Oruezábal.

A dozen venture capital firms listened carefully to CNIO scientists’ ideas, aimed at translating discoveries into benefits for patients.