The field of study of Piero Crespo at the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria (IBBTEC) is the regulation of Ras-ERK signals. On April 19, explained the latest developments of their research at a conference framed in IDIBELL seminar series.

His work focuses on the study of the mechanisms of Ras regulation in particular on how subcellular localization and confinement of the signals affect the biological and biochemical functions of these proteins in both physiological and pathological contexts.

According to Piero Crespo “Ras-ERK signaling pathway is activated in approximately 50% of human tumors. We are looking for new types of drugs to block the signals flow through this signaling pathway.”

“We want to find two types of inhibitors” explained Crespo “first, site-specifically inhibitors that block subsignals instead of the total signal, and secondly to find inhibitors that work by blocking protein-protein instead of inhibiting the catabolic activity of proteins involved in the Ras-ERK”.