Transformation and Metastasis Group

Eva González Suárez Group Leader
T +34 (+34) 917 328 000 (Ext 3550)
egonzalez@cnio.es

Research Scientists

Marta Isabel Barradas
María Jiménez

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Macarena Pozo

Graduate Students

Alba Calero Pagés
María Aránzazu Gómez
Mario Rodríguez
Alejandro Sánchez
Xavier Thillen

Technicians

Alexandra Barranco
Alejandro Collado
Víctor López

In the Transformation and Metastasis Group, we aim to understand normal mammary gland development and the key events that lead to tumour initiation, progression, and metastasis, and to identify novel therapeutic targets to combat breast cancer. We use complementary tools, including primary cell cultures and organoids, lineage tracing mouse models, and clinical samples with the goal of translating basic knowledge into clinically relevant findings.

Recent publications

Eski SE, Mi J, Pozo-Morales M, Hovhannisyan GG, Perazzolo C, Manco R, Ez-Zammoury I, Barbhaya D, Lefort A, Libert F, Marini F, Gurzov EN, Andersson O, Singh SP. (2025). Cholangiocytes contribute to hepatocyte regeneration after partial liver injury during growth spurt in zebrafish. Nat Commun 16, 5260. CNIO Publication.
Vethencourt A, Trinidad EM, Dorca E, Petit A, Soler-Monsó MT, Ciscar M, Barranco A, Pérez-Chacón G, Jimenez M, Rodríguez M, Gomez-Aleza C, Purqueras E, Hernández-Jiménez E, Urruticoechea A, Morilla I, Subirana I, García-Tejedor A, Gil-Gil M, Pernas S, Falo C, Gonzalez-Suarez E. (2025). Denosumab as an immune modulator in HER2-negative early breast cancer: results of the window-of-opportunity D-BIOMARK clinical trial. Breast Cancer Res 27, 68. Publication in other institutions.
Lorenzo-Sanz L, Lopez-Cerda M, da Silva-Diz V, Artés MH, Llop S, Penin RM, Bermejo JO, Gonzalez-Suarez E, Esteller M, Viñals F, Espinosa E, Oliva M, Piulats JM, Martin-Liberal J, Muñoz P. (2024). Cancer cell plasticity defines response to immunotherapy in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Nat Commun 15, 5352. CNIO Publication.
Rocha AS, Collado-Solé A, Graña-Castro O, Redondo-Pedraza J, Soria-Alcaide G, Cordero A, Santamaría PG, González-Suárez E. (2023). Luminal Rank loss decreases cell fitness leading to basal cell bipotency in parous mammary glands. Nat Commun 14, 6213. CNIO Publication. Open Access
Ciscar M, Trinidad EM, Perez-Chacon G, Alsaleem M, Jimenez M, Jimenez-Santos MJ, Perez-Montoyo H, Sanz-Moreno A, Vethencourt A, Toss M, Petit A, Soler-Monso MT, Lopez V, Gomez-Miragaya J, Gomez-Aleza C, Dobrolecki LE, Lewis MT, Bruna A, Mouron S, Quintela-Fandino M, Al-Shahrour F, Martinez-Aranda A, Sierra A, Green AR, Rakha E, Gonzalez-Suarez E. (2023). RANK is a poor prognosis marker and a therapeutic target in ER-negative postmenopausal breast cancer. EMBO Mol Med 15, e16715. CNIO Publication. Open Access
Cordero A, Santamaría PG, González-Suárez E. (2023). Rank ectopic expression in the presence of Neu and MMTV oncogenes alters mammary epithelial cell populations and their tumorigenic potential. J Mammary Gland Biol 28, 2. CNIO Publication. Open Access
van Amerongen R, Bentires-Alj M, van Boxtel AL, Clarke RB, Fre S, Suarez EG, Iggo R, Jechlinger M, Jonkers J, Mikkola ML, Koledova ZS, Sørlie T, Vivanco MD. (2023). Imagine beyond: recent breakthroughs and next challenges in mammary gland biology and breast cancer research. J Mammary Gland Biol 28, 17. CNIO Publication.
Gomes I, Gallego-Paez LM, Jiménez M, Santamaria PG, Mansinho A, Sousa R, Abreu C, Suárez EG, Costa L, Casimiro S. (2023). Co-targeting RANK pathway treats and prevents acquired resistance to CDK4/6 inhibitors in luminal breast cancer. Cell Rep Med 4, 101120. CNIO Publication.
Woo XY, Giordano J, Srivastava A, Zhao ZM, Lloyd MW, de Bruijn R, Suh YS, Patidar R, Chen L, Scherer S, Bailey MH, Yang CH, Cortes-Sanchez E, Xi Y, Wang J, Wickramasinghe J, Kossenkov AV, Rebecca VW, Sun H, Mashl RJ, Davies SR, Jeon R, Frech C, Randjelovic J, Rosains J, Galimi F, Bertotti A, Lafferty A, O'Farrell AC, Modave E, Lambrechts D, Ter Brugge P, Serra V, Marangoni E, El Botty R, Kim H, Kim JI, Yang HK, Lee C, Dean DA 2nd, Davis-Dusenbery B, Evrard YA, Doroshow JH, Welm AL, Welm BE, Lewis MT, Fang B, Roth JA, Meric-Bernstam F, Herlyn M, Davies MA, Ding L, Li S, Govindan R, Isella C, Moscow JA, Trusolino L, Byrne AT, Jonkers J, Bult CJ, Medico E, Chuang JH; PDXNET Consortium; EurOPDX Consortium. (2021). Conservation of copy number profiles during engraftment and passaging of patient-derived cancer xenografts. Nat Genet 53, 86-99. CNIO Publication.
Benítez S, Cordero A, Santamaría PG, Redondo-Pedraza J, Rocha AS, Collado-Solé A, Jimenez M, Sanz-Moreno A, Yoldi G, Santos JC, De Benedictis I, Gómez-Aleza C, Da Silva-Álvarez S, Troulé K, Gómez-López G, Alcazar N, Palmero I, Collado M, Serrano M, Gonzalez-Suarez E (2021). RANK links senescence to stemness in the mammary epithelia, delaying tumor onset but increasing tumor aggressiveness.. Dev Cell 56, 1727-1741. CNIO Publication. Open Access
Bernat-Peguera A, Navarro-Ventura J, Lorenzo-Sanz L, da Silva-Diz V, Bosio M, Palomero L, Penin RM, Pérez Sidelnikova D, Bermejo JO, Taberna M, Vilariño N, Piulats JM, Mesia R, Viñals JM, González-Suárez E, Capella-Gutierrez S, Villanueva A, Viñals F, Muñoz P. (2021). FGFR Inhibition Overcomes Resistance to EGFR-targeted Therapy in Epithelial-like Cutaneous Carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res 27, 1491-1504. CNIO Publication.
Gómez-Aleza C, González-Suárez E (2021). Inhibition of RANK signaling as a potential immunotherapy in breast cancer. Oncoimmunology 10, 1923156. CNIO Publication. Open Access
Sanz-Moreno A, Palomeras S, Pedersen K, Morancho B, Pascual T, Galván P, Benítez S, Gomez-Miragaya J, Ciscar M, Jimenez M, Pernas S, Petit A, Soler-Monsó MT, Viñas G, Alsaleem M, Rakha EA, Green AR, Santamaria PG, Mulder C, Lemeer S, Arribas J, Prat A, Puig T, Gonzalez-Suarez E. (2021). RANK signaling increases after anti-HER2 therapy contributing to the emergence of resistance in HER2-positive breast cance. Breast Cancer Res 23, 42. CNIO Publication.