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

Melanomas are inherently aggressive cancers for which basic and translational research have significantly improved patient prognosis. Nevertheless, clinical responses are still incomplete. The long-term goals of our Group are to identify new progression biomarkers and therapeutic agents. Focusing on stress response programmes involving apoptosis, autophagy and endosome mobilisation, we have discovered lineage-specific oncogenes that define the melanoma ‘fingerprint’. Transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of the melanoma secretome have allowed us to define how tumour cells remodel the (lymp)angiogenic vasculature and avoid immune recognition. Moreover, we have generated a unique set of animal models for non-invasive imaging of melanoma progression in vivo. These systems have led to the validation of nanoparticle-based treatments which are being currently being tested in clinical trials. Our ultimate objective is to improve the management of patients with otherwise refractory metastatic melanomas..

Publications

• p62/SQSTM1 Fuels Melanoma Progression by Opposing mRNA Decay of a Selective Set of Pro-metastatic Factors(2019)
  Karras P, Riveiro-Falkenbach E, Cañon E, Ortiz-Romero PL, Rodriguez-Peralto JL, Soengas MS
  Cancer Cell 35, 46-63.
• KLF9-dependent ROS regulate melanoma progression in stage-specific manner(2019)
  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
  Oncogene (in press).
• p62/SQSTM1 Fuels Melanoma Progression by Opposing mRNA Decay of a Selective Set of Pro-metastatic Factors.(2019)
  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.
  Cancer Cell 35, 46-63.
• CD38 promotes pristane-induced chronic inflammation and increases susceptibility to experimental lupus by an apoptosis-driven and TRPM2-dependent mechanism(2018)
  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
  Sci Rep 8, 3357-.
• Whole-body imaging of lymphovascular niches identifies pre-metastatic roles of midkine.(2017)
  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
  Nature 546, 676-680.
• Systems analysis identifies melanoma-enriched pro-oncogenic networks controlled by the RNA binding protein CELF1.(2017)
  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.
  Nat Commun 8, 2249-.
• Location, Location, Location: Spatio-Temporal Cues That Define the Cell of Origin in Melanoma.(2017)
  Soengas MS, Patton EE.
  Cell Stem Cell 21, 559-561.
• TYRP1 mRNA goes fishing for miRNAs in melanoma.(2017)
  Soengas MS, Hernando E
  Nat Cell Biol 19, 1311-1312.
• ATG5 mediates a positive feedback loop between Wnt signaling and autophagy in melanoma.(2017)
  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
  Cancer Res 77, 5873-5885.
• DEK oncogene is overexpressed during melanoma progression.(2017)
  Riveiro-Falkenbach E, Ruano Y, García-Martín RM, Lora D, Cifdaloz M, Acquadro F, Ballestin C, Ortiz-Romero PL, Soengas MS, Rodríguez-Peralto JL
  Pigment Cell Melanoma Res 30, 194-202.
• Lineage-specific roles of the cytoplasmic polyadenylation factor CPEB4 in the regulation of melanoma drivers.(2016)
  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
  Nat Communications 7, 13418-.
• Metastatic risk and resistance to BRAF inhibitors in melanoma defined by selective allelic loss of ATG5.(2016)
  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
  Autophagy 12, 1776-1790.
• UNR/CSDE1 Drives a Post-transcriptional Program to Promote Melanoma Invasion and Metastasis.(2016)
  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.
  Cancer Cell 30, 694-707.
• TRANSAUTOPHAGY: European network for multidisciplinary research and translation of autophagy knowledge.(2016)
  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.
  Autophagy 12, 614-617.
• The nuclear corepressor 1 and the thyroid hormone receptor ß suppress breast tumor lymphangiogenesis.(2016)
  Martínez-Iglesias O, Olmeda D, Alonso-Merino E, Gómez-Rey S, González-López AM, Luengo E, Soengas MS, Palacios J, Regadera J, Aranda A
  Oncotarget 7, 78971-78984.
• The state of melanoma: challenges and opportunities.(2016)
  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
  Pigment Cell Melanoma Res 29, 404-416.
• Vesicular trafficking mechanisms in endothelial cells as modulators of the tumor vasculature and targets of antiangiogenic therapies.(2016)
  Maes H, Olmeda D, Soengas MS, Agostinis P
  FEBS J 283, 25-38.
• Evaluation of the antiproliferative, proapoptotic, and antiangiogenic effects of a double-stranded RNA mimic complexed with polycations in an experimental mouse model of leiomyoma.(2016)
  García-Pascual CM, Ferrero H, Juarez I, Martínez J, Villanueva A, Pozuelo-Rubio M, Soengas M, Tormo D, Simón C, Gómez R, Pellicer A
  Fertil Steril 105, 529-538.
• Understanding Tumor-Antigen Presentation in the New Era of Cancer Immunotherapy.(2016)
  Cerezo-Wallis D, Soengas M
  Curr Pharm Design 22, 6234-6250.
• RAB7 counteracts PI3K-driven macropinocytosis activated at early stages of melanoma development.(2015)
  Alonso-Curbelo D, Osterloh L, Cañón E, Calvo TG, Martínez-Herranz R, Karras P, Martínez S, Riveiro-Falkenbach E, Romero PO, Rodríguez-Peralto JL, Pastor J, Soengas MS
  Oncotarget 6, 11848-11862.
• Hyperactivated endolysosomal trafficking in melanoma.(2015)
  Alonso-Curbelo D, Soengas MS
  Oncotarget 6, 2583-2584.
• Let’s make it happen: for gender equality in science!(2015)
  Kos L, Patton EE, Soengas MS
  Pigment Cell Melanoma Res 28, 641-642.
• Evaluation of the potential therapeutic effects of a double-stranded RNA mimic complexed with polycations in an experimental mouse model of endometriosis.(2015)
  García-Pascual CM, Martínez J, Calvo P, Ferrero H, Villanueva A, Pozuelo-Rubio M, Soengas M, Tormo D, Simón C, Pellicer A, Gómez R
  Fertil Steril 104, 1310-1318.
• RAB7 controls melanoma progression by exploiting a lineage-specific wiring of the endolysosomal pathway.(2014)
  Alonso-Curbelo D, Riveiro-Falkenbach E, Perez-Guijarro E, Cifdaloz M, karras P, Osterloh L, Megías D, Cañón E, Calvo TG, Olmeda D, Gómez-Lopez G, Graña O, Sánchez-Arévalo VJ, Pisano DG, Wang H-W, Ortiz-Romero P, Tormo D, Hoeck K, Rodríguez-Peralto JL, Joyce JA, Soengas MS
  Cancer Cell 26, 61-76.
• Unmet needs in melanoma research.(2014)
  Aplin A, Bosenberg M, Soengas M, Kos L, Arnheiter H, Kelsh R
  Pigment Cell Melanoma Res 27, 1003-.
• DEK is a potential marker for aggressive phenotype and irinotecan-based therapy response in metastatic colorectal cancer.(2014)
  Martinez-Useros J, Rodriguez-Remirez M, Borrero-Palacios A, Moreno I, Cebrian A, Gomez Del Pulgar T, Del Puerto-Nevado L, Vega-Bravo R, Puime-Otin A, Perez N, Zazo S, Senin C, Fernandez-Aceñero MJ, Soengas MS, Rojo F, Garcia-Foncillas J
  Bmc Cancer 14, 965-.