Research projects

T-cell lymphoblastic neoplasms are a very aggressive group of tumours that originate from immature thymocytes. Despite the successes achieved by chemotherapy, the appearance of resistance and relapses mean that the cure rate in these cases does not exceed 7%. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify new biomarkers that allow the development of more effective and less toxic treatments. Our work has focused on the integration of omics data to search for new genetic alterations of clinical utility. In the last year we have continued with the identification of new mutations and changes in gene expression that have allowed us to propose new targeted therapy strategies using the PanDrugs algorithm, in the context of personalized precision medicine; we have confirmed the potential of transcriptomic analysis to identify new fusion transcripts that function as new biomarkers of malignancy in our tumors; we have evidenced that the efficacy of γ-secretase inhibitors depend on the gene dosage of the MYC gene (The Oncologist); and we have performed a proteomic analysis that reveals new non-apoptotic functions of FADD in lymphoblastic neoplasms (Int J Mol Sci). In order to better understand the efficacy of radiation treatments we have demonstrated the advantages of combined radiation regimens in controlling tumorigenesis that allow better control of healthy tissue homeostasis and facilitate tumour cell death (Scientific Reports). We have presented a new method to quantify long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) from telomeric regions (TERRA and TERC) in cell lines and blood, with broad applications in basic research and clinical diagnostics (Communications Biology). Finally, we have demonstrated the importance of circular RNAs in thymocyte differentiation (non-coding RNA).