IRB Barcelona opens a new laboratory focused on targeted protein degradation as a therapeutic tool.
The new group is endorsed by the the "la Caixa" Foundation-BIST Chemical Biology Programme, that seeks to enhance the production of new drugs through a powerful research programme in Chemical Biology that will allow the creation of a chemical biology hub in Barcelona.
Researcher Cristina Mayor-Ruiz (Soria, 1989), who is forging a career in cancer research and is an expert on targeted protein degradation, joined IRB Barcelona to lead a new laboratory. The Targeted Protein Degradation and Drug Discovery lab will apply the novel technique of targeted protein degradation to the molecular study of diseases such as cancer and the discovery of new therapeutic approaches.
Targeted protein degradation is based on a cell degradation process discovered by Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose and awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004. This technique uses different types of "degrading" drugs to bring a target protein (for example, a mutated protein that contributes to the development of a disease) closer to the cellular machinery that directs protein degradation. By forcing these two components together, target proteins are labelled for destruction by the cell proteasome.
The importance of the "la Caixa" Foundation-BIST Chemical Biology Programme, which has backed the appointment of Dr. Cristina Mayor-Ruiz, lies in its mission to enhance research in Chemical Biology in Barcelona, a city with a powerful biopharmaceutical sector and the infrastructure necessary to become an international hub in this line of research, which has strong therapeutic potential.
Combining the quantitative techniques of chemistry with the medical relevance of biology, chemical biology is the science that studies the behaviour of small molecules in living systems. One of its main goals is to develop new treatments.
"Through this programme, "la Caixa" Foundation takes a step further in its firm commitment to ensuring that the results of health research are transferred to society. The institution has been supporting research of excellence for more than 30 years, with the conviction that promoting medical research is investing in people’s well-being," explains Mr. àngel Font, Corporate Director of Research and Health at "la Caixa" Foundation.
IRB Barcelona will play a leading role in the development of this programme thanks to the appointment of Dr. Cristina Mayor-Ruiz, whose new group (Targeted Protein Degradation and Drug Discovery Lab) will guide its research towards targeted protein degradation, an innovative technique with important therapeutic applications.
Dr. Cristina Mayor-Ruiz holds a degree in Biotechnology from the University of Salamanca. She carried out her doctoral studies in Molecular Biology in Dr. Oscar Fernández-Capetillo’s lab at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), where she focused on mechanisms of resistance to cancer therapies. She then joined Dr. Georg Winter's lab as a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) in Vienna, Austria. Her work has given rise to eight scientific articles—in five of which she is first author—published in journals such as Nature Chemical Biology and Molecular Cell.
"Chemical biology has enormous transfer potential, especially for the production of new drugs, so it’s especially interesting to promote a powerful hub of this discipline in an environment like Barcelona. We redirect mechanisms against proteins that are of therapeutic interest, for example, in the treatment of cancer and, in particular, of the pancreas, for which there is virtually no treatment currently available," says Dr. Cristina Mayor-Ruiz.
Dr. Irene Marco-Rius (Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC)) is also joining this programme. She will be leading her own research group in biology, establishing a collaborative framework in multidisciplinary research that will allow IRB Barcelona and IBEC to engage in close collaboration.
Dr. Irene Marco-Rius explains that her group will focus on the development of innovative molecular imaging technologies for the early diagnosis of diseases: "our body's cells adapt rapidly to their environment and change the way they get the nutrients and energy they need to survive. My group works on a technology that allows us to study these reactions."
At IRB Barcelona we are most grateful to the "la Caixa" Foundation and BIST for their firm commitment to biomedical research of excellence, and we are especially happy to collaborate with IBEC in furthering this promising research programme and in promoting young talented female scientists.
