ERC: entering the laboratory of the most recent awardees
The Biocat website has dedicated a report to three of the researchers most recently awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Grant. Among them is Fran Supek, leader of the Genome Data Science group at IRB Barcelona, who obtained an ERC Starting Grant to undertake a study on hypermutated tumours.
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The mechanism unveiled triggers a mutation fog, causing hundreds of mutations in each tumor, which spread through the genome of lung, head-and-neck and breast cancers.
Researchers from the Genome Data Science Lab have identified the antiviral APOBEC3A enzyme as the major cause of this new type of hypermutation.
Published in Nature Genetics, the study shows how the mutation fog process generates many oncogenic “cancer driver” mutations, thus accelerating tumour development.
The European Commission has awarded funding to 17 research projects in a special call announced to tackle the coronavirus. IRB Barcelona’s Structural Bioinformatics and Network Biology Lab, headed by Patrick Aloy, is participating in one of these projects, together with other research centres. The project, called RiPCoN, will perform a computational study of the interactions between coronavirus and human cells, with the aim to identify drugs (already on the market or in trials) that can halt the spread of the virus.
Modesto Orozco’s lab has published a paper in Chemical Communications about a therapeutic tool to prevent treatment resistance in breast cancer.
The tool has been tested in tumour cells in vitro and will now need to be tested in animal models before moving on to the development of a valid treatment for patients.
