Oncología

Tumor cells hijack the tumor microenvironment ecosystem via paracrine signaling to promote a pro-oncogenic microenvironment that is critical for the establishment of primary and metastatic tumors. The working hypothesis of the laboratory is that cellular signaling pathways are altered during the tumorigenesis process, and that these alterations are translated into differential protein secretion, which potentially can be exploited to discover secreted markers. Furthermore, some of the differentially regulated proteins could be direct extracellular messengers of intracellular signaling pathways contributing to key steps in cancer initiation and progression, therefore becoming potential therapeutic targets.

Proteomic technologies off er the advantage of a genome-scale search for tumor-specifi c biomarkers and drug targets and could revolutionize early detection and molecular characterization of cancer through non-invasive methods. However, the fi eld of cancer proteomics has encountered problems with reproducibility and limitations related to the massive complexity of biological samples.

By using a new proteomics approach capable of the quantitative profi ling of the secreted subproteome (“secretome”) of cells, we will generate secretome signatures in diff erent cancer model systems, as well as from clinical samples. We are confi dent that the discovery of secreted tumorspecific biomarkers will play a key role in cancer therapeutics and diagnostics.