Sección de Biología

Carmen Blanco Jefe de Sección
T +34 917328000 (Ext 3780)
cblanco@cnio.es

Investigadores Científicos

Pablo Aparicio
Marta San Martín

Técnicos de Laboratorio

Antonio Cebriá
Claudia Díaz
Elena Gómez-Casero

Our group conducts targeted early drug discovery projects to identify and develop small molecules as potential therapeutics against oncogenic targets. After target validation, the starting point of these projects is a screening campaign using scalable and robust assays that reflect target interaction and biological relevance; these can be either biochemical or cellular assays. Biochemical assays are simpler, with fast turnarounds but lack context. Conversely, cellular assays are more physiologically relevant, more complex to interpret, and have a slower turnaround. In a project flowchart, typically we run a biochemical HTS screen followed by validation in a target-dependent cellular assay. However, this sometimes fails to identify potential hits, at which point we move to a more complex cellular assay that measures the target activity in cells. In the latter case, the identification of a hit then requires a target deconvolution task to determine whether its mechanism of action is direct, or through modulation of another pathway.

Publicaciones recientes

González-Muñoz T, Di Giannatale A, García-Silva S, Santos V, Sánchez-Redondo S, Savini C, Graña-Castro O, Blanco-Aparicio C, Fischer S, De Wever O, Creus-Bachiller E, Ortega-Bertran S, Pisapia DJ, Rodríguez-Peralto JL, Fernández-Rodríguez J, Pérez-Portabella CR, Alaggio R, Benassi MS, Pazzaglia L, Scotlandi K, Ratner N, Yohay K, Theuer CP, Peinado H. (2023). Endoglin, a Novel Biomarker and Therapeutical Target to Prevent Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor Growth and Metastasis. Clin Cancer Res 29, 3744-3758. Publicación CNIO.
Jimenez L, Amenabar C, Mayoral-Varo V, Mackenzie TA, Ramos MC, Silva A, Calissi G, Grenho I, Blanco-Aparicio C, Pastor J, Megías D, Ferreira BI, Link W (2022). mTORC2 Is the Major Second Layer Kinase Negatively Regulating FOXO3 Activity. Molecules 27, 5414. Publicación CNIO. Open Access
Álvarez RM, García AB, Riesco-Fagundo C, Martín JI, Varela C, Rodríguez Hergueta A, González Cantalapiedra E, Oyarzabal J, Di Geronimo B, Lorenzo M, Albarrán MI, Cebriá A, Cebrián D, Martínez-González S, Blanco-Aparicio C, Pastor J (2021). Omipalisib inspired macrocycles as dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitors.. Eur J Med Chem 211, 113109. Publicación CNIO.
Jimenez L, Silva A, Calissi G, Grenho I, Monteiro R, Mayoral-Varo V, Blanco-Aparicio C, Pastor J, Bustos V, Bracher F, Megías D, Ferreira BI, Link W (2021). Screening health-promoting compounds for their capacity to induce the activity of FOXO3. J Gerontol A-Biol (in press). Publicación CNIO.
Moore G, Lightner C, Elbai S, Brady L, Nicholson S, Ryan R, O'Sullivan KE, O'Byrne KJ, Blanco-Aparicio C, Cuffe S, O'Neill M, Heavey S, Finn SP, Gately K (2021). Co-Targeting PIM Kinase and PI3K/mTOR in NSCLC.. Cancers 13, 2139. Publicación CNIO.
Martínez-González S, Alvarez RM, Martín JI, García AB, Riesco-Fagundo C, Varela C, Rodríguez Hergueta A, González Cantalapiedra E, Albarrán MI, Gómez-Casero E, Cebriá A, Aguirre A, Ajenjo N, Cebrián D, Geronimo B, Cunningham D, O'Neill M, Dave HPG, Blanco-Aparicio C, Pastor J (2021). Macrocyclization as a source of desired polypharmacology. Discovery of triple PI3K/mTOR/PIM inhibitors.. ACS Med Chem Lett 12, 1794-1801. Publicación CNIO.