Melanoma Group

María S. Soengas Group Leader
T +34 917328000 (Ext 3680)
msoengas@cnio.es

Staff Scientists

Nuria Gago
David Olmeda

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Susana Frago
María Magdalena Leal
Adriana Sanna

Graduate Students

Xavier Catena
Marta Contreras
Naiara Juan
Sergio Oterino
Thelma Poluha
Cristina Tejedo

Technicians

Tonantzin Guadalupe Calvo
Cynthia Mucientes
Mireia Vallespinós

Melanomas are the only tumours where lesions barely over one millimetre in depth can be at risk for metastasis. An increasing number of (epi)genetic alterations and mechanisms of immune evasion have been identified in this disease. Nevertheless, no molecular biomarker has been approved as a bona fide prognostic indicator. The field is also in need of improved treatments, as a significant fraction of patients is resistant to targeted and immune-based therapies. The long-term goal of our Group is to identify new progression biomarkers and anticancer agents. We are particularly interested in defining lineage-specific vulnerabilities that distinguish melanomas from other tumours with lower metastatic potential (publications in Nature, Cancer Cell, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Communications, among others). Our laboratory has also generated first-in-class lymphoreporter mice for non-invasive imaging of pre-metastatic niches in melanoma (Nature) and has identified actionable immune suppressive mechanisms with implications for patient treatment (Nature Medicine). Our ultimate objective is to improve the management of patients with otherwise refractory metastatic melanomas.

Publications

Patton EE, Mueller KL, Adams DJ, Anandasabapathy N, Aplin AE, Bertolotto C, Bosenberg M, Ceol CJ, Chi P, Herlyn M, Holmen SL, Karreth FA, Kaufman CK, Khan S, Kobold S, Leucci E, Levy C, Lombard DB, Lund AW, Marie KL, Marine JC, Marais R, McMahon M, Robles-Espinoza CD, Ronai ZA, Samuels Y, Soengas MS, Villanueva J, Weeraratna AT, White RM, Yeh I, Zhu J, Zon LI, Hurlbert MS, Merlino G (2021). Melanoma models for the next generation of therapies. Cancer Cell (in press). CNIO Publication.
Atkins MB, Curiel-Lewandrowski C, Fisher DE, Swetter SM, Tsao H, Aguirre-Ghiso JA, Soengas MS, Weeraratna AT, Flaherty KT, Herlyn M, Sosman JA, Tawbi HA, Pavlick AC, Cassidy PB, Chandra S, Chapman PB, Daud A, Eroglu Z, Ferris LK, Fox BA, Gerhsenwald JE, Gibney GT, Grossman D, Hanks BA, Hanniford D, Hernando E, Jeter JM, Johnson DB, Khleif SN, Kirkwood JM, Leachman SA, Mays D, Nelson KC, Sondak VK, Sullivan RJ, Merlino G (2021). The State of Melanoma: Emergent Challenges and Opportunities. Clin Cancer Res 27, 2678-2697. CNIO Publication.
Olmeda D, Cerezo-Wallis D, Castellano-Sanz E, García-Silva S, Peinado H, Soengas MS (2021). Physiological models for in vivo imaging and targeting the lymphatic system: Nanoparticles and extracellular vesicles. Adv Drug Deliver Rev 175, 113833. CNIO Publication.
Lund AW, Soengas MS (2020). Lymph: (Fe)rrying Melanoma to Safety. Cancer Cell 38, 446-448. CNIO Publication.
Cerezo-Wallis D, Contreras-Alcalde M, Troulé K, Catena X, Mucientes C, Calvo TG, Cañón E, Tejedo C, Pennacchi PC, Hogan S, Kölblinger P, Tejero H, Chen AX, Ibarz N, Graña-Castro O, Martinez L, Muñoz J, Ortiz-Romero P, Rodriguez-Peralto JL, Gómez-López G, Al-Shahrour F, Rabadán R, Levesque MP, Olmeda D, Soengas MS. (2020). Midkine rewires the melanoma microenvironment toward a tolerogenic and immune-resistant state. Nat Med 26, 1865-1877. CNIO Publication.
Karras P, Riveiro-Falkenbach E, Cañón E, Tejedo C, Calvo TG, Martínez-Herranz R, Alonso-Curbelo D, Cifdaloz M, Perez-Guijarro E, Gómez-López G, Ximenez-Embun P, Muñoz J, Megias D, Olmeda D, Moscat J, Ortiz-Romero PL, Rodríguez-Peralto JL, Soengas MS (2019). p62/SQSTM1 Fuels Melanoma Progression by Opposing mRNA Decay of a Selective Set of Pro-metastatic Factors. Cancer Cell 35, 46-63. CNIO Publication.
Karras P, Riveiro-Falkenbach E, Cañón E, Tejedo C, Calvo TG, Martínez-Herranz R, Alonso-Curbelo D, Cifdaloz M, Perez-Guijarro E, Gómez-López G, Ximenez-Embun P, Muñoz J, Megias D, Olmeda D, Moscat J, Ortiz-Romero PL, Rodríguez-Peralto JL, Soengas MS. (2019). p62/SQSTM1 Fuels Melanoma Progression by Opposing mRNA Decay of a Selective Set of Pro-metastatic Factors.. Cancer Cell 35, 46-63. CNIO Publication.
Bagati A, Moparthy S, Fink EE, Bianchi-Smiraglia A, Yun DH, Kolesnikova M, Udartseva OO, Wolff DW, Roll MV, Lipchick BC, Han Z, Kozlova NI, Jowdy P, Berman AE, Box NF, Rodriguez C, Bshara W, Kandel ES, Soengas MS, Paragh G, Nikiforov MA (2019). KLF9-dependent ROS regulate melanoma progression in stage-specific manner. Oncogene 38, 3585-3597. CNIO Publication.
Olmeda D, Cerezo-Wallis D, Calvo TG, Alonso-Curbelo D, Cañón E, Ibarz N, Muñoz J, Ortega S, Soengas MS (2019). Antimetastatic dsRNA mimics identified by live imaging of pathogenic neolymphangiogenes. BioRivx (in press). CNIO Publication.
García-Rodríguez S, Rosal-Vela A, Botta D, Cumba Garcia LM, Zumaquero E, Prados-Maniviesa V, Cerezo-Wallis D, Lo Buono N, Robles-Guirado JÁ, Guerrero S, González-Paredes E, Andrés-León E, Corbí Á, Mack M, Koch-Nolte F, Merino R, Zubiaur M, Lund FE, Sancho J (2018). CD38 promotes pristane-induced chronic inflammation and increases susceptibility to experimental lupus by an apoptosis-driven and TRPM2-dependent mechanism. Sci Rep 8, 3357. CNIO Publication. Open Access
Cifdaloz M, Osterloh L, Graña O, Riveiro-Falkenbach E, Ximénez-Embún P, Muñoz J, Tejedo C, Calvo TG, Karras P, Olmeda D, Miñana B, Gómez-López G, Cañon E, Eyras E, Guo H, Kappes F, Ortiz-Romero PL, Rodríguez-Peralto JL, Megías D, Valcárcel J, Soengas MS (2017). Systems analysis identifies melanoma-enriched pro-oncogenic networks controlled by the RNA binding protein CELF1. Nat Commun 8, 2249. CNIO Publication. Open Access
Olmeda D, Cerezo-Wallis D, Riveiro-Falkenbach E, Pennacchi PC, Contreras-Alcalde M, Ibarz N, Cifdaloz M, Catena X, Calvo TG, Cañón E, Alonso-Curbelo D, Suarez J, Osterloh L, Graña O, Mulero F, Megías D, Cañamero M, Martínez-Torrecuadrada JL, Mondal C, Di Martino J, Lora D, Martinez-Corral I, Bravo-Cordero JJ, Muñoz J, Puig S, Ortiz-Romero P, Rodriguez-Peralto JL, Ortega S, Soengas MS (2017). Whole-body imaging of lymphovascular niches identifies pre-metastatic roles of midkine.. Nature 546, 676-680. CNIO Publication.
Soengas MS, Patton EE (2017). Location, Location, Location: Spatio-Temporal Cues That Define the Cell of Origin in Melanoma. Cell Stem Cell 21, 559-561. CNIO Publication.
Soengas MS, Hernando E (2017). TYRP1 mRNA goes fishing for miRNAs in melanoma.. Nat Cell Biol 19, 1311-1312. CNIO Publication.
Ndoye A, Budina-Kolomets A, Kugel III C, Webster M, Kaur A, Behera R, Vito Rebecca V, Ling Li L, Patricia Brafford P, Qin Liu Q, Y.N. Vashisht Gopal YNV, Michael Davies M, Gordon Mills G, Xiaowei Xu X, Hong Wu H, Meenhard Herlyn M, Michael Nicastri M, Jeffrey Winkler J, Maria Soengas MS, Ravi Amaravadi R, and Maureen Murphy M and Weeraratna AW (2017). ATG5 mediates a positive feedback loop between Wnt signaling and autophagy in melanoma.. Cancer Res 77, 5873-5885. CNIO Publication.
Riveiro-Falkenbach E, Ruano Y, García-Martín RM, Lora D, Cifdaloz M, Acquadro F, Ballestin C, Ortiz-Romero PL, Soengas MS, Rodríguez-Peralto JL (2017). DEK oncogene is overexpressed during melanoma progression.. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res 30, 194-202. CNIO Publication.
Pérez-Guijarro E, Karras P, Cifdaloz M, Martínez-Herranz R, Cañón E, Graña O, Horcajada-Reales C, Alonso-Curbelo D, Calvo TG, Gómez-López G, Bellora N, Riveiro-Falkenbach E, Ortiz-Romero PL, Rodríguez-Peralto JL, Maestre L, Roncador G, de Agustín Asensio JC, Goding CR, Eyras E, Megías D, Méndez R, Soengas MS (2016). Lineage-specific roles of the cytoplasmic polyadenylation factor CPEB4 in the regulation of melanoma drivers. Nat Commun 7, 13418. CNIO Publication. Open Access
Wurth L, Papasaikas P, Olmeda D, Bley N, Calvo GT, Guerrero S, Cerezo-Wallis D, Martinez-Useros J, García-Fernández M, Hüttelmaier S, Soengas MS, Gebauer F. (2016). UNR/CSDE1 Drives a Post-transcriptional Program to Promote Melanoma Invasion and Metastasis.. Cancer Cell 30, 694-707. CNIO Publication.
Casas C, Codogno P, Pinti M, Batoko H, Morán M, Proikas-Cezanne T, Reggiori F, Sirko A, Soengas MS, Velasco G, Lafont F, Lane J, Faure M, Cossarizza A. (2016). TRANSAUTOPHAGY: European network for multidisciplinary research and translation of autophagy knowledge.. Autophagy 12, 614-617. CNIO Publication.
Martínez-Iglesias O, Olmeda D, Alonso-Merino E, Gómez-Rey S, González-López AM, Luengo E, Soengas MS, Palacios J, Regadera J, Aranda A (2016). The nuclear corepressor 1 and the thyroid hormone receptor ß suppress breast tumor lymphangiogenesis. Oncotarget 7, 78971-78984. CNIO Publication.
Merlino G, Herlyn M, Fisher DE, Bastian BC, Flaherty KT, Davies MA, Wargo JA, Curiel-Lewandrowski C, Weber MJ, Leachman SA, Soengas MS, McMahon M, Harbour JW, Swetter SM, Aplin AE, Atkins MB, Bosenberg MW, Dummer R, Gershenwald JE, Halpern AC, Herlyn D, Karakousis GC, Kirkwood JM, Krauthammer M, Lo RS, Long GV, McArthur G, Ribas A, Schuchter L, Sosman JA, Smalley KS, Steeg P, Thomas NE, Tsao H, Tueting T, Weeraratna A, Xu G, Lomax R, Martin A, Silverstein S, Turnham T, Ronai ZA (2016). The state of melanoma: challenges and opportunities.. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res 29, 404-416. CNIO Publication.
Maes H, Olmeda D, Soengas MS, Agostinis P (2016). Vesicular trafficking mechanisms in endothelial cells as modulators of the tumor vasculature and targets of antiangiogenic therapies.. FEBS J 283, 25-38. CNIO Publication.
García-Pascual CM, Ferrero H, Juarez I, Martínez J, Villanueva A, Pozuelo-Rubio M, Soengas M, Tormo D, Simón C, Gómez R, Pellicer A (2016). Evaluation of the antiproliferative, proapoptotic, and antiangiogenic effects of a double-stranded RNA mimic complexed with polycations in an experimental mouse model of leiomyoma.. Fertil Steril 105, 529-538. CNIO Publication.
Cerezo-Wallis D, Soengas M (2016). Understanding Tumor-Antigen Presentation in the New Era of Cancer Immunotherapy.. Curr Pharm Design 22, 6234-6250. CNIO Publication.
García-Fernández M, Karras P, Checinska A, Cañón E, Calvo GT, Gómez-López G, Cifdaloz M, Colmenar A, Espinosa-Hevia L, Olmeda D, Soengas MS (2016). Metastatic risk and resistance to BRAF inhibitors in melanoma defined by selective allelic loss of ATG5.. Autophagy 12, 1776-1790. CNIO Publication.