Our team

Karmele got her PhD in 2008 in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the “Universidad de Navarra”.
Since then, she has been committed with lung cancer research, focusing on new biomarkers and molecular mechanisms. She has been part of several research teams in both private and public institutions as CIMA (Universidad de Navarra), UGL Belgium or ETH Zürich Switzerland.
She has been granted by different organisms for her research as the Spanish Ministry of Education, Navarra Government or Fundación Alfonso Martín Escudero.
She has been awarded 4 times with Young Investigator mentions or fellowships funded by different institutions: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) in 2012, the European Calcified Tissue Society (ECTS) in 2013, CIBERONC in 2018 and International Lung Cancer Foundation (IASLC) in 2020.
She is principal author of many papers published in important scientific journals in the field.

Marta Rodríguez Moreno is a Molecular Biologist who obtained her PhD in Dr. Félix Bonilla’s laboratory at the Medical Oncology Department, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Puerta de Hierro-Segovia de Arana (Madrid, Spain), analyzing the critical role of extracellular vesicles during tumorigenesis in breast cancer and colorectal cancer ( Silva J, García V, Rodríguez M et al. Genes Chromosomes Cancer., 51(4):409-18, (2012); Soldevilla B, Rodríguez M et al. Hum Mol Genet., 15:23(2):467-78 (2014); Rodríguez M et al. Oncotarget., 1:6(38):40575-87 (2015)). During her PhD, she was the beneficiary of a short-term research fellowship at Dr. Edit Buzás´s lab (Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary) in 2015 as FPI to learn specific approaches about exosomes, metastasis and pancreatic cancer (Osteikoetxea X, Benke M, Rodriguez M et al. Biochem Biophys Res Commun., 30:499(1):37-43, (2018)). In 2016, she joined Dr. Alicia Llorente´s laboratory (Oslo University Hospital, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo, Norway) as a postdoctoral fellow to understand the extracellular vesicles molecular cargo as potential biomarkers in prostate cancer (Rodríguez M et al. Mol Cancer., 5:16(1):156, (2017); Endzeliņš E, Berger A, Melne V, Bajo-Santos C, Soboļevska K, Ābols A, Rodriguez M et al. BMC Cancer., 9;17(1):730, (2017)). Marta is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Miguel Ángel Piris´s lab at the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria-Fundación Jiménez Díaz (Madrid, Spain). The group is focused on complex lymphoproliferative diseases characterized by clinical aggressiveness with low therapeutic response, tumour heterogeneity and patterns of dependency/interaction with the microenvironment. She is part of Haematological Tumours Group and the Liquid Biopsy working module team of the CIBERONC network.

Marta Dueñas work in the Molecular Biology Unit at CIEMAT-Fundación de Investigación Hospital 12 de Octubre (Madrid) where she is the project leader for liquid biopsy in genitourinary tumors. She focuses her research in bladder cancer and her main areas of interest and expertise are in biomarker identification and validation for diagnostic and response prediction to BCG and immunotherapy in tissue samples as well as in urine as well as in the study and comprehension of TME in bladder cancer development, progression and resistance to therapy. Marta did her Ph.D in Immunotechology at the Wallenberg Laboratory in Lund University (Sweden) and then was post-doctoral fellow and Head of the Genomic Department at CIGB in Havana (Cuba). Since 2009 she has been working at CIEMAT as a Senior Scientist and has been studying the molecular bases of solid tumors (HNSCC, Breast, Lung, Renal and Bladder). She has participated in 62 total scientific publications (H index 22) and 5 international patent applications, has directed 2 doctoral thesis (2 more ongoing) and 7 master degree thesis. She combines her research activity with decency by participating as a professor in several post graduate courses.

Sara works as an attending physician at the Medical Oncology Service of Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañon (Madrid). She focuses her research on one hand on breast cancer prevention and treatment, especially in the triple negative subtype, the neoadjuvant model and early-phase new drug development, and on the other hand on translational research, PDX models and the liquid biopsy. After specializing in Medical Oncology in 2006, she began her fellowship in translational research at Baylor College of Medicine in the Breast Center (Houston) based on the molecular mechanisms of breast cancer resistance to endocrine therapy. Then, in 2009, Dr. López-Tarruella obtained her PhD degree at Universidad Complutense (Madrid), studying de novo metastatic breast cancer prognostic factors in the GEICAM Alamo project I-II. Dr. López-Tarruella currently works as Physician Assistant in the breast cancer and phase I trial units at HGUGM, contributing as co-investigator in several clinical and translational research trials. Since 2007, she has been principal and sub-investigator in more than 50 phase I-III clinical trials and observational studies. She is full member of scientific societies and research cooperative groups (GEICAM, SEOM and ESMO), as well as Associate Professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Medicine Department). She has published more than 50 research papers in indexed journals (H-Index= 19).

María Eugenia works in the Molecular Biology Laboratory of the Haematology Department at the University Hospital of Salamanca where she develops her scientific career in the haematology field with a Miguel Servet grant.
She has mainly worked in molecular characterization and minimal residual disease studies in lymphoproliferative disorders. However, she is currently leading a new research line focused on the study of circulating tumor DNA in Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas.
She has participated and leaded many research projects funded by public and private bodies and awarded through competitive tender. She has published 78 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Beatriz Bellosillo is the Head of the Molecular Biology laboratory at the Pathology Department of Hospital del Mar, in Barcelona, Spain, and she is an associate professor at the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona. She is an experienced molecular biologist with expertise in translational research in Hematology and Oncology areas.

She studied Pharmacy from 1988-1993 and completed her PhD studies from 1993- 1999 in the University of Barcelona. Since joining the Hospital del Mar (Barcelona) in 2001, she has developed the molecular diagnostic area in the Pathology Department and actively participated in the implementation of the Tissue Bank.

Her scientific interest has focused in the last years on the assessment of molecular alterations and other biomarkers involved in haematological malignancies and solid tumors, with a special emphasis on the implementation of the liquid biopsy for studying solid tumors. She has studied the role of molecular biomarkers to determine the diagnosis and prognosis of patients and also their predictive value. Dr. Bellosillo has participated in more than 50 research projects related to these issues, as principal investigator in 12 of them. As a result of the activity in this field, she has published more than 180 articles in peer-review international journals (H-factor 44) and is the co-inventor of 2 patents.

Member of the Colorectal Cancer and new therapeutic developments in solid tumors research group at the Biomedical Research Institute INCLIVA (Valencia).

Noelia Tarazona received her PhD from the University of Valencia in 2019. She was awarded an ESMO Translational Research Fellowship (2013-2015) and joined the Nicholas Turner´s lab at the Institute of Cancer Research in London working on liquid biopsy and several clinical research projects. She later received a Rio Hortega Grant to do her PhD in localized colon cancer and minimal residual disease. In 2008, she was selected to be part of the ESMO Leaders Generation Programme. At present, she is focused on monitoring ctDNA, the tumor microenvironment and organoid development in solid tumors. She is also a member of Gastrointestinal Tumors Program (CIBERONC) and Translational Research and Precision Medicine Working Group (ESMO).

Silvia Calabuig is a post-doctoral fellow and Head of the Liquid Biopsy Section at the Molecular Oncology Laboratory of the Fundación para la Investigación del Hospital General Universitario de Valencia (FIHGUV). She is also a doctorate lecturer at Universitat de València and a member of Respiratory Tract Tumors Group of CIBERONC in the group of Dr Camps and Dr. Jantus.
Silvia Calabuig has a PhD in Biology (2009) from the Pathology Department of Universitat de Valencia. She is co-author of more than 50 indexed publications (H-index 15), most of them in Q1 in the field of Oncology and currently participates in several national and international projects in oncology research. She is a molecular biologist with expertise in the discovery of liquid biopsy biomarkers (cfDNA, exosomes, CTCs) in translational research.

Javier Hernández Losa has a PhD in biology from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (2005). He leads the Molecular Biology Laboratory of the Pathology Service of the Hospital Universitari Vall d´Hebron in Barcelona since 2006. The laboratory specializes in the study of biomarkers, mainly in tissue samples and these studies have recently been extended to Liquid Biopsy samples. Over the last few years he has coordinated 3 PhD thesis and is the tutor of several master projects based on the study of cfDNA and exosomes, both in in vitro models and in clinical samples from patients with advanced tumors. Currently, he is a member of the Low Prevalence Tumors Program of CIBERONC and is also the PI of several research projects

Julie Earl, Senior Researcher, Molecular epidemiology and predictive tumor markers group, Ramón y Cajal Health Research Institute (IRYCIS), completed her PhD at the University of Liverpool, UK and her postdoctoral studies at the University of Liverpool and the Spanish Cancer Research Center (CNIO) in Madrid, Spain. She specializes in cancer genetics and tumor biomarkers, particularly in digestive cancers and is a member of the Digestive Tumors Program of CIBERONC. She is the coordinator of the Spanish familial pancreatic cancer registry and also the coordinator of the BEAMing facility. The lines of research include the genetics of familial pancreatic cancer and the use of the liquid biopsy for the identification and validation of tumor biomarkers, particularly Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC) and circulating free tumor DNA detection (cftDNA). She has published more than 30 papers and currently actively participates in several national and international projects in oncology research.