Science today for the medicine of tomorrow: cancer and metastasis at the CCCB
On 27 May, IRB Barcelona researcher Elena Sancho, specialist in colon cancer and metastasis, will be the protagonist of the CCCB cycle "Science today for the medicine of tomorrow".
Elena Sancho's conference will begin at 19 pm at the CCCB (Montalegre 5, Barcelona) and will be presented by Monica Lopez Ferrado. Admission is free.
Over recent decades, biomedical research conducted across the globe has led to significant progress in finding treatments for many of these pathologies, converting some into chronic rather than lethal conditions. For others, existing therapies have been improved and new treatments have been discovered. Despite much progress, however, these diseases continue to present significant challenges for biomedical scientists, and research efforts are intense. How far have we come, and how much progress have we made in our understanding of each of these diseases?
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in developed countries. It is defined as the uncontrolled division and replication of cells within a tissue or organ that causes the growth of a tumour mass. Ninety percent of cancer deaths are caused not by the primary tumour but by metastasis, the process by which a few cells escape the original tumour to colonize and grow in distant organs. New knowledge and concepts, such as cancer stem cells, and new tools, such as immunotheraphy, bioinformatics, DNA chips and the development of sophisticated animal models, have provided valuable weapons to help us discover diagnostic tools and personalized treaments that are bringing us closer to converting cancer into a chronic, rather than lethal, condition.
Born in Madrid in March 1966, Elena Sancho holds a degree in the biological sciences from the Autonomous University of Madrid, and a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Aberdeen (Scotland). After completing her doctoral thesis, she received fellowships to study in several prestigious European laboratories, including those of Miguel Beato in the IMT (Germany) and Hans Clevers in the Hubrecht Laboratorium (Netherlands). Since 2004 Dr Sancho has been part of the Oncology Programme at IRB Barcelona, where together with Eduard Batlle, she coordinates the Colorectal Cancer laboratory. Their work has led to key findings in this field.
Further information: CCCB