Guadalupe Sabio (center) with Joaquín Martínez (left) and Lola Manterola (right), president of the CRIS Cancer Foundation. / CRIS.
Her project analyses proteins that are released by fat cells under obese conditions and affect the development of liver tumors
The award is endowed with 1.25 million euros
Guadalupe Sabio, head of the Organ Interactions in Metabolic Diseases Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), received yesterday the CRIS Excellence Program 2025-2030. The prize, awarded by the CRIS Cancer Foundation, is endowed with 1.250.000 euros, which will go to CRIS Project Liver Cancer led by Sabio to study how obesity affects the development of hepatic cancer. This type of cancer is one of the most lethal, as it is usually detected in very advanced stages.
Proteins for early diagnosis and treatment
Sabio’s group studies at CNIO how excessive fat accumulation affects the metabolism of adipose tissue cells and the effect of this modification on disease. In the award-winning project, they analyze tiny proteins that are released by fat cells when the body becomes obese. These proteins affect the functioning of liver cells and may contribute to the development of tumors.
The work has a twofold objective: on the one hand, to ensure that these proteins can be used as markers with which to detect liver cancer at much earlier stages when treatment is still possible. But also to study how they can contribute to the development of more effective and personalized therapies.
Sabio received the award from Joaquín Martínez, head of the H12O – CNIO Haematological Malignancies Clinical Research Unit and scientific director of CRIS, at the awards ceremony for researchers that closed yesterday’s CRIS 2025 Scientific Symposium, held in Madrid.
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