The Resistance and Progression Mechanisms in Prostate Cancer group in the Molecular Mechanisms and Experimental Therapy in Oncology Program (Oncobell) at IDIBELL and the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) headed by Dr Àlvaro Aytés has been granted with $800,000 in the Idea Development Award-Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP-IDA) call from the USA Department of Defense. The grant will help to fund a 3-year project coordinated by Dr Aytés in collaboration with Dr Himisha Beltran at Dana Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, USA). This award is in line with and a natural follow-up of Dr Aytés previously funded project under the FY17 PCRP‐IDA from USA Department of Defense, in which researchers investigated mechanisms of prostate cancer therapy resistance.
The new proposed study will address how dysregulation of chromatin remodelers in therapy resistant prostate cancer impinges on the tumor immune microenvironment and will provide insights into novel approaches for treating metastatic prostate tumors that are currently resistant to immunotherapy. The researchers will exploit sophisticated genetically engineered mouse prostate cancer models, advanced genomics profiling and computational biology approaches to identify and validate new mechanisms in lethal prostate cancer. They will investigate how these mechanisms can be exploited as cancer vulnerabilities and potential pharmacological targets using genome-editing tools and will test them in preclinical trials.
Project Title: Dissecting the role of cancer cell chromatin remodeling on the landscape of tumor immune microenvironment.
PI: Dr Alvaro Aytés is the Group Leader of the Resistance and progression mechanisms in Prostate Cancer Lab in the Oncology Research program (OncoBELL) and the Program Against Cancer Therapeutic Resistance (ProCURE) of the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) at IDIBELL.
The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a biomedical research center created in 2004. It is participated by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital of the Catalan Institute of Health, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona and the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.
IDIBELL is a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona HUBc and is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2009 it became one of the first five Spanish research centers accredited as a health research institute by the Carlos III Health Institute. In addition, it is part of the “HR Excellence in Research” program of the European Union and is a member of EATRIS and REGIC. Since 2018, IDIBELL has been an Accredited Center of the AECC Scientific Foundation (FCAECC).