Dr. Cervantes is awarded with the Merck Research Award 2017 in Colorectal Cancer
Dr. Cervantes receiving the award from the hands of Doña Carmen González Madrid, Executive President of the Merck Health Foundation.
In the 26th edition of Merck Research Grants, the Merck Health Foundation has decided to award with 30.000€ to the project “Study of prognostic factors and predictors of resistance to target treatments in right and left colorectal cancer using organoids as a preclinical model of disease” submitted by Dr. Andrés Cervantes in Colorectal Cancer section.
The Merck Health Foundation is a private, non-profit institution, funded by Merck Serono (a leader company in science and technology) and specialized in the areas of Healthcare, Life Science and Performance Materials, whose purpose is to promote Biomedical Research in all disciplines that contribute to the improvement of health and encourage the development of Bioethics and Health Law.It is for these reasons, that Merck Serono strated its Research Grants, aimed at promoting biological and biomedical research in Spain, by funding unpublished projects and award one for each area of clinical research in: Allergology, Head and Neck Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Lung Cancer, Rare Diseases, Multiple Sclerosis, and Fertility.
Colorectal cancer is one of the most common illness worldwide and is the third leading cause of cancer death, affecting both men and women alike. Currently, the treatments have limited functionality and it is known that there are certain characteristics that influence on treatment efficacy, including the spatial location of the tumor, i.e. whether it is in the right or left hemicolon or the molecular profile of the tumor.
The winners at the gala along with the members who presented the prizes.
In the project, it will be developed models of primary tumor with the objective of analyzing biological characteristics, responses to environmental factors (cellular niche) and differential genetic characteristics in a basal study as a function of the primary tumor location. Subsequently, the study will be completed with the implementation of models derived from metastatic tissue of the same patient, in order to identify the differences between the primary and metastatic tumors in the patient and mechanisms involved in resistance to target treatments and secondarily in tumor progression. Molecular analysis will use state-of-the-art techniques such as NGS or ddPCR. Cell viability and immunopathological assays will also be carried out.
In addition, these models will be used to test the suitability of drugs according to the characteristics of the tumor, so that we can approach to precision medicine, since they will allow us to select the most appropriate treatment for each patient.
To carry out this project, Dr. Cervantes has the participation of his research group, a multidisciplinary team that complements itself. The clinical team has specialists from different areas: oncologists, pathologists and surgeons and the research team consists mainly of biologists and biochemists. The funding of this project will help boost one of the new lines of research that the InDeST group is opening, the use of organoids as a personalized model of cancer.
Dr. Cervantes at the Merck Serono Awards 2017 with his wife Laura (left) and Dr. Ana Lluch (right).