Pilar Sánchez, Diana Morant, Cristóbal Belda and Antonio Pérez.
The Ministry of Science and Innovation has promoted two lines of research one brain tumors and pediatric cancer. The objective is to advance in the knowledge of these diseases in order to facilitate diagnostic and therapeutic improvements for patients. The Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morantwho visited the Chamartín campus this Friday Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII)has stated that the Government of Spain is reinforcing health research with European funds, which is the most precious asset we have.
Morant, accompanied by the director of the ISCIII, Christopher Beldahas met with the researcher Pilar Sanchezleader of the ISCIII Neuro-oncology Unit, and Anthony Perez, researcher at the Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Service of the La Paz University Hospital Research Institute. Sánchez has spent years studying the gliomas, malignant brain tumors currently incurable, which typically appear in people over 50 years of age, although they are also diagnosed in children. Today, they are the leading cause of cancer death in patients under the age of 19.
To advance in the treatment of this type of tumor in children, the ISCIII is going to initiate a new research project, in collaboration with the Niño Jesús Hospital, which will combine the genetic information of individual tumors to generate in vitro models developed with the tumor cells themselves. In a complementary way, animal models will also be generated, with Drosophila flies, to mimic the development of tumors and bring closer the possibility of treating them more effectively.
Screening of 10,000 molecules
Additionally, there will be a screening of some 10,000 molecules that will be tested in mouse animal models. Lastly, the identified drugs will be evaluated in clinical trials in patients with the mutations identified in the first phases of the project. For his part, Pérez leads the SEHOP-Pencil project whose objective is to promote precision medicine in the approach to childhood cancer to improve survival and reduce morbidity levels.
The Ministry of Science and Innovation, through the call for MISCIII Personalized Edition 2021, has allocated 1.8 million euros to this project to promote new advances in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric cancer and ensure that its results reach all parts of Spain. The 2021 ISCIII Personalized Medicine call is included in the Perte for State-of-the-Art Healtha public-private collaboration instrument focused on transforming the health sector through science and innovation.
This Perte, which has funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Planplans to mobilize close to 1,500 million euros between 2021 and 2023 for the development of advanced therapy and precision medicine projects.
New ISCIII-CDTI joint call for health research
During his visit, Morant recalled that the Ministry of Science and Innovation is going to publish in the coming weeks a joint call between the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) and the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) to finance, with 25 million euros, pCollaborative R&D&I projects in health between public research organizations, hospitals and companies.
The projects to be financed seek to generate and consolidate innovative procedures to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment and patient care in a personalized way. Specific, these projects will be aimed at developing early diagnosis tools in the field of precision medicine to improve the detection and treatment of diseases with high morbidity.
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