(*) Means equal contribution as senior authors.
Ana Macrina Añazco Guenkova
Telf.:
Fax:
Email: ana.anazco@usal.es
- BSc Biology by the University of Alcalá, Madrid (2015-2019)
-Final Year Undergrad Project and practices in the Molecular Genetics field (2019)
-Currently studying for a Master’s degree in Biology and Clinic of Cancer by the University of Salamanca (2019-2020).
-During my Master’s, I am doing my Practicum in the CIC laboratory of Epitranscriptomics and Cancer, focusing on the functional role of RNA modifications in the activation and maturation of immune cells (2019-2020)
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Sandra Blanco Benavente
Telf.:
Fax:
Email: sandra.blanco@usal.es
Research during my PhD and post-doctorate period
During my PhD and my post-doctorate, I have been engaged in finding the molecular mechanisms that lead to cancer. Initially during my PhD, at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Cancer (Salamanca, Spain), I studied post-translation modifications (phosphorylation), and particularly dysfunctional kinases as possible targets for cancer therapy under the supervision of Prof. Pedro A. Lazo. During my post-doctorate, in the group of Dr. Michaela Frye at the Wellcome Trust – MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute – University of Cambridge, I studied the functional role of post-transcriptional RNA modifications in tissue homeostasis and the impact of their dysregulation in diseases such as cancer. My work largely contributed to the knowledge we have gained to date on the functional role of post-transcriptional modifications and pathological outcomes of their dysregulation, in particular 5-methylcytosine deposition in RNA. There are around 100 known covalent RNA modifications, yet our knowledge about their occurrence and physiological function in mammals is still very limited. My studies have demonstrated that cytosine-5 RNA methylation has an essential role in cellular processes including self-renewal and stress responses in tissue and cancer stem cells.
By combining stem cell biology and mouse genetics, I found that cytosine-5 RNA methylation (m5C) is a novel mechanism by which stem and progenitor cells (both in tissue and in cancer) balance self-renewal and differentiation/proliferation properties 1-5. By using novel transcriptome‐wide sequencing approaches together with mouse genetics, I determined that cytosine-5 RNA methylation is a widespread modification in coding, non-coding RNAs and mainly transfer RNAs (tRNAs) 1,6-10 which regulated self-renewal in tissue stem cells but also sensitivity to stress in tumour initiating cells 4,5,9. Thus, my work in the laboratory of M. Frye was innovative and shed light on novel dysfunctional and targetable molecular pathways in cancer. Our findings were pioneers in exploring yet unknown mechanisms in stem cell and cancer biology and established the emergence of a novel research field coined as the Epitranscriptome. Moreover, our studies were the first to mechanistically link altered RNA methylation and cancer, and set novel road maps to chart the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies to treat cancer 5,11,12.
After my postdoctoral position, I was awarded a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (Sept’2016) that enabled my establishment as a Junior PI at CIC bioGUNE (Spain). Since then my research has focused on epitranscriptomics in cancer, in particular defining the molecular traits that the fluctuating epitranscriptome may confer to cancer cells and cancer initiating cells.
References
1 Blanco, S, Kurowski, A, Nichols, J, Watt, FM, Benitah, SA & Frye, M. The RNA-methyltransferase Misu (NSun2) poises epidermal stem cells to differentiate. PLoS genetics 7, e1002403, doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002403 (2011).
2 Hussain, S, Tuorto, F, Menon, S, Blanco, S, Cox, C, Flores, JV, Watt, S, Kudo, NR, Lyko, F & Frye, M. The mouse cytosine-5 RNA methyltransferase NSun2 is a component of the chromatoid body and required for testis differentiation. Molecular and cellular biology 33, 1561-1570, doi:10.1128/MCB.01523-12 (2013).
3 Blanco, S & Frye, M. Role of RNA methyltransferases in tissue renewal and pathology. Current opinion in cell biology 31C, 1-7, doi:10.1016/j.ceb.2014.06.006 (2014).
4 Flores, JV, Cordero-Espinoza, L, Oeztuerk-Winder, F, Andersson-Rolf, A, Selmi, T, Blanco, S, Tailor, J, Dietmann, S & Frye, M. Cytosine-5 RNA Methylation Regulates Neural Stem Cell Differentiation and Motility. Stem Cell Reports, doi:10.1016/j.stemcr.2016.11.014 (2016).
5 Blanco, S, Bandiera, R, Popis, M, Hussain, S, Lombard, P, Aleksic, J, Sajini, A, Tanna, H, Cortes-Garrido, R, Gkatza, N, Dietmann, S & Frye, M. Stem cell function and stress response are controlled by protein synthesis. Nature 534, 335-340, doi:10.1038/nature18282 (2016).
6 Martinez, FJ, Lee, JH, Lee, JE, Blanco, S, Nickerson, E, Gabriel, S, Frye, M, Al-Gazali, L & Gleeson, JG. Whole exome sequencing identifies a splicing mutation in NSUN2 as a cause of a Dubowitz-like syndrome. Journal of medical genetics 49, 380-385, doi:10.1136/jmedgenet-2011-100686 (2012).
7 Hussain, S, Aleksic, J, Blanco, S, Dietmann, S & Frye, M. Characterizing 5-methylcytosine in the mammalian epitranscriptome. Genome biology 14, 215, doi:10.1186/gb4143 (2013).
8 Hussain, S, Sajini, AA, Blanco, S, Dietmann, S, Lombard, P, Sugimoto, Y, Paramor, M, Gleeson, JG, Odom, DT, Ule, J & Frye, M. NSun2-mediated cytosine-5 methylation of vault noncoding RNA determines its processing into regulatory small RNAs. Cell reports 4, 255-261, doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2013.06.029 (2013).
9 Blanco, S, Dietmann, S, Flores, JV, Hussain, S, Kutter, C, Humphreys, P, Lukk, M, Lombard, P, Treps, L, Popis, M, Kellner, S, Holter, SM, Garrett, L, Wurst, W, Becker, L, Klopstock, T, Fuchs, H, Gailus-Durner, V, Hrabe de Angelis, M, Karadottir, RT, Helm, M, Ule, J, Gleeson, JG, Odom, DT & Frye, M. Aberrant methylation of tRNAs links cellular stress to neuro-developmental disorders. The EMBO journal 33, 2020-2039, doi:10.15252/embj.201489282 (2014).
10 Van Haute, L, Dietmann, S, Kremer, L, Hussain, S, Pearce, SF, Powell, CA, Rorbach, J, Lantaff, R, Blanco, S, Sauer, S, Kotzaeridou, U, Hoffmann, GF, Memari, Y, Kolb-Kokocinski, A, Durbin, R, Mayr, JA, Frye, M, Prokisch, H & Minczuk, M. Deficient methylation and formylation of mt-tRNA(Met) wobble cytosine in a patient carrying mutations in NSUN3. Nature communications 7, 12039, doi:10.1038/ncomms12039 (2016).
11 Frye, M & Blanco, S. Post-transcriptional modifications in development and stem cells. Development 143, 3871-3881, doi:10.1242/dev.136556 (2016).
12 Popis, MC, Blanco, S & Frye, M. Posttranscriptional methylation of transfer and ribosomal RNA in stress response pathways, cell differentiation, and cancer. Current opinion in oncology 28, 65-71, doi:10.1097/CCO.0000000000000252 (2016).
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Aurora Campos Díaz
Alba Cisneros Martín
Lara Dorado Sánchez
Vicente Fernández Rodero
Raquel García Vilchez
Telf.:
Fax:
Email: raquelgarcv@usal.es
- PhD student in Epitranscriptomic and Cancer group, Centro de Investigación del Cáncer. FPI-2017 contract.
- Final Master Project in Molecular Oncology Department. Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT). Madrid. Spain
- Master degree in "Molecular and Cellular Biology". Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. 2016-2017
- ERASMUS + Internship in Epigenetics Department in Babraham Institute. Cambridge. United Kingdom. 2016
- Granted Internship in Instituto de Investigación Marqués de Valdecilla. Santander. Spain. 2015
- Graduate in Biotechnology. Universidad de León. 2011-2015.
Publications
- Freire-Pritchett P, Schoenfelder S, Várnai C, Wingett SW, Cairns J, Collier AJ, García-Vílchez R, Furlan-Magaril M, Osborne CS, Fraser P, Rugg-Gunn PJ, Spivakov M. Global reorganisation of cis-regulatory units upon lineage commitment of human embryonic stem cells. Elife. 2017 Mar 23;6. pii: e21926. doi: 10.7554/eLife.21926. PubMed PMID: 28332981; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5407860.
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Ana Gómez Marcos
Anabel González Cillero
Soña Gubová
Héctor Ignacio Huerta Álvarez de Luna
Telf.:
Fax:
Email: hectoorhuerta@gmail.com
Judith López Luís
Role of ribosomal RNA methylation in prostate cancer
Telf.:
Fax:
Email: judithlopezluis@hotmail.com
- University Professor Training Program (FPU) Fellow (2020-2023)
- AECC predoctoral Fellow (2019-2023)
- PhD Student at Epitranscriptomics and Cancer Lab under the supervision of Dr Sandra Blanco (2019-).
- JAE intro Research Fellow. Epitranscriptomic and Cancer Lab (Oct 2019-Nov 2019).
- Master's degree in Biology and Clinic of Cancer by the University of Salamanca (2018-2019) with Extraordinary Master's Degree Award.
- Collaboration Scholarship awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, Cell Biology and Genetics, University of La Laguna and Instituto Universitario de Enfermedades Tropicales y Salud Pública de Canarias (IUETSPC). 2017-2018.
- BSc Biology by the University of La Laguna (2014-2018) with Extraordinary End-of-Degree Award.
× Óscar Monteagudo García
Virgínia Morón Calvente
Mª Paz Nombela Blanco
Damián Pena Oya
Alba Soledad Rodríguez Raya
Domenico Rosace
Telf.:
Fax:
Email: domenico.rosace@usal.es
Realicé mis estudios de grado en "Biotecnología Médica" en la Universidad de Nápoles. Completé mi formación en biotecnología farmacéutica en la Universidad ALMA, Bolonia. En ambas Universidades adquirí un gran interés en el campo farmacéutico aplicado a la salud humana y mi voluntad de continuar mi carrera en la investigación.
En 2013 pasé siete meses en el laboratorio de Oncología Médica de VU University Medical Center Amsterdam, donde desarrollé un proyecto de investigación en el campo de Oncología, bajo la supervisión de la Dra. Elisa Giovannetti. Esto me permitió escribir mi proyecto de tesis de maestría titulado "Role de células madre cancerosas en el comportamiento agresivo del cáncer pancreático ", supervisado por el Dr. Santi Mario Spampinato. Allí tuve la oportunidad de trabajar en un entorno internacional estimulante que adquirió un perfil internacional de alto nivel.
Realicé mi doctorado en Inmunología y Medicina Traslacional en la Universidad de San Pablo CEU de Madrid bajo la supervisión del Dr. Domingo Barber y la Dra. Maria Marta Escribese y trabajé a mi proyecto de tesis doctoral, “Las reacciones alérgicas alimentarias mediadas por profilina están asociadas con la remodelación del epitelio oral”. Mi objetivo ha sido describir la conexión entre las alergias respiratorias y alimentarias y comprender por qué los pacientes expuestos en exceso a los alérgenos del polen de gramíneas se sensibilizaron a alérgenos alimentarios menores y algunos de ellos desarrollaron reacciones alérgicas alimentarias graves.
Durante mi estancía en la Universidad McMaster (Ontario, Canadá), también estudié, utilizando modelos murinos, la contribución de la inmunidad de las células B IgG + y las células B de memoria en las etapas incipientes de la sensibilización epicutánea a los alimentos. He sido supervisado por el Dr. Manel Jordana y el Dr. Rodrigo Jimenez-Saiz.
Actualmente, soy investigador postdoctoral en el laboratorio de epitranscriptómica del Centro de Investigación de Cáncer (CIC) de Salamanca. Estoy trabajando en el grupo liderado por la Dra. Sandra Blanco Benavente analizando la conexión entre las modificaciones epitranscriptómicas y el desarrollo de varios tipos de cáncer.
× Matías Ruggieri
José Antonio Sánchez Castro
Adrian Vddin
Víctor de Frutos Herrero
PI3K pathway and its relationship among epitranscriptomics and cancer
Telf.:
Fax:
Email: victorst98@usal.es
-BSc Biology student at the University of Salamanca (USAL) 2016-2020.
-Currently in the final year and doing practices at the cancer research center CIC since March 2019.
-Interested in the pathway of PI3K and its relationship with epitranscriptomics and cancer.
-Will start Final Year Undergrad Project on september under the supervision of Dr. Sandra Blanco at Epitranscriptomics and Cancer Lab
-September 2020: Master de biología y tecnología aplicada a la reproducción humana asistida en la Universidad de Europa.
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Virginia Moron Calvente