Research information
Background
Cancer is driven by genetic mutations, but mutations alone cannot explain why some cells become cancerous while others do not, why tumors evolve differently, or how they escape immune control. Growing evidence points to the importance of non-genetic mechanisms that regulate cellular plasticity and interactions with the surrounding environment in shaping cancer development.
Inflammation plays a particularly important role in these processes. While essential for tissue repair and immune protection, inflammatory responses can also create conditions that favor cancer initiation and progression. Understanding what determines these contrasting outcomes is a central challenge in cancer biology.
Our laboratory investigates how inflammation and epigenetic plasticity interact to shape cell behavior and tissue responses in cancer, and how broader physiological conditions, such as aging, influence these processes. Focusing on inflammation-driven malignancies, we seek to uncover how non-genetic mechanisms operating across individual cells, local tissue ecosystems, and the whole organism determine whether inflammatory responses support tissue regeneration and immune protection or promote cancer initiation, evolution, and immune escape.
Research interests
Our laboratory investigates how non-genetic mechanisms govern cancer initiation, evolution, and immune escape, with a particular focus on the interplay between inflammation, epigenetic plasticity, and local and organism-wide environmental contexts.
We study how individual cells interpret inflammatory signals, how interactions between different cell types shape tissue behavior, and how organism-wide conditions, such as aging, influence cancer susceptibility and progression.
Focusing on pancreatic and liver cancers, two major clinical challenges for which more effective early intervention and treatment strategies are urgently needed, we integrate advanced mouse models, functional genetics, single-cell and spatial technologies, and human samples to investigate these processes across three interconnected biological scales.
Our ultimate goal is to identify mechanisms that distinguish physiological tissue repair and immune protection from cancer-promoting responses, opening new opportunities for cancer prevention, early intervention, and treatment.
Research lines
- Cell-intrinsic scale: How do cells interpret their environment during cancer initiation and evolution?
- Cells carrying cancer-associated mutations do not all behave in the same way. Their capacity to change identity and function, known as cellular plasticity, is shaped by epigenetic programs that regulate gene expression without altering the underlying DNA sequence.
- We investigate how epithelial cells carrying cancer-associated mutations sense and respond to inflammatory signals, and why some engage in normal tissue repair while others acquire cancer-promoting properties. By identifying the molecular mechanisms that drive these divergent cell states, we aim to understand how cancer-associated cellular diversity emerges, how it shapes tumor evolution, and how it might be therapeutically redirected.
- Tissue-level scale: How do cellular interactions shape cancer development and immune escape?
- Cancer cells do not evolve in isolation. They constantly communicate with immune cells and other components of their surrounding tissue, forming complex ecosystems that can either restrain or support tumor development.
- We investigate how cell–cell interactions that normally sustain tissue repair and immune surveillance become altered during cancer initiation and progression. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding how immune cell plasticity influences the behavior of neighboring premalignant and malignant cells, and how processes such as cellular senescence can reshape immune recognition.
- Our goal is to uncover how otherwise protective tissue responses become diverted toward tumor promotion and immune escape, and to identify ways to selectively target pathogenic inflammatory responses while restoring effective anti-tumor immunity.
- Organismal scale: How do systemic inflammatory cues influence cancer susceptibility and evolution?
- The biological environment in which cancer develops extends beyond the affected tissue. Chronic inflammatory conditions and communication between organs can alter immune responses throughout the body, potentially influencing whether cancers emerge, progress, or spread.
- We investigate how these organism-wide inflammatory states reshape local tissue ecosystems and affect the behavior of normal and cancerous cells. A particular focus is the interplay between aging, cellular senescence, and systemic inflammation, as well as the consequences of these processes for cancer susceptibility and metastatic progression.
- By connecting changes at the organismal level with the cellular and tissue mechanisms studied in our other research lines, we aim to understand how the broader physiological environment influences cancer development and identify opportunities to intervene.
Selected publications
Projects
ERC Consolidator Grant
Unmasking non-genetic determinants instructing tumor initiation (IGNITE). 2025–2030. PI.
Coordinated Project AECC 2025
Early-onset pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a comprehensive multimodal investigation (EOPC-ACMI). 2026–2029. Co-PI.
Plan de Generación de Conocimiento 2024. Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
Elucidating cell–cell interactions underlying homeostatic and pro-oncogenic niches in pancreatic cancer (ECHO, PID2024-159806OB-I00). 2025–2028. PI.
IRB–VHIO Collaborative Project
Multi-Omics Spatial Cartography of Pancreatic Tumor Ecosystems (SCAPE, CEX2023-001260-S). 2025–2028. Co-PI.
European Partnership for Personalised Medicine – EP PerMed JTC2024
Combinatorial personalized approaches for subtyping and targeting functional heterogeneity in PDAC (COMBAT-PDAC, 101137129). 2025–2027. Co-PI.
AgeMMetTech Project CEX2023-001260-S/MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033
Systematic Discovery of Immune and Epithelial Checkpoints and Senolytic Therapy in Liver Cancer. 2025–2026. PI.
Ramón y Cajal National Programme
RYC2023-045857-I. 2025–2029. PI.
EU-funded TRANSCAN-3 JTC2022
Systemic immunological determinants of tumor evolution and therapy response in BRCA-mutated PDAC (SIMMBAP). 2023–2026. Co-PI.
DoD Pancreatic Cancer Research Program Idea Development Award
Award Number: W81XWH-22-1-0814. Epigenetic licensing of pancreatic cancer metastasis. 2022–2025. Co-PI.
SGR-Cat 2021 (AGAUR)
Inflammation in Aged Tissue Ecosystems (INFLAM-MATES). 2022–2025. PI-coordinator. Co-PI.
Plan de Generación de Conocimiento 2021. Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2021-128102OA-I00. Dissecting and targeting early epigenetic programs in pancreatic cancer (PRE-CAN). 2022–2025. PI.
National Research Network 2022
PID2020-116824RB-100. RAS oncoproteins: from basic science to therapeutic applications (RAS-CURE). 2022–2024. Consortium headed by Dr. David Santamaría from CIC Salamanca.
II Ayuda FERO-ASEICA (BFERO2021)
Intercepting onco-inflammatory networks in pancreatic cancer. 2022–2023. PI.
La Caixa Junior Leader Incoming
Dissecting and targeting cell and tissue fate dysregulation.
More information
Honors & Awards
- 2026 ICREA Research Professor, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (Spain).
- 2024 Cancer Discovery Early Career Award, American Association for Cancer Research (USA).
- 2023 Ramón y Cajal Fellowship - Ranked 1st in Biomedicine category.
- 2022 Award for the Promotion of Scientific Vocations, Merck Salud-ASEICA (Spain).
- 2022 ´CAN de las Ciencias´ Award, Council of Gran Canaria (Spain).
- 2021 Blavatnik Regional Award for Young Scientists, Winner in Life Sciences (USA).
- 2020 “La Caixa” Junior Leader Award, La Caixa Foundation (Spain).
- 2018 Benjamin F. Trump Award for Scientific Research Excellence (USA).
- 2016 AACR Scholar-in-Training Award, American Association for Cancer Research (USA).
- 2014 Ramón Areces Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, Ramón Areces Foundation (Spain).
- 2014 Extraordinary Doctorate Award, Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain).
- 2010 EMBO Short-Term Fellowship, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
- 2009 Biomedical Sciences Schools Valedictorian, Complutense University of Madrid (Spain).
- 2008 National Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences (3rd pos), Ministry of Education (Spain).
- 2007 National Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Spanish Ministry of Education (Spain).
- 2007 Pharmacy School Valedictorian Award, UCM University (Spain).
