IBEC senior researcher Pere Roca-Cusachs has been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept Grant. This is a prestigious grant awarded by the European Research Council to explore the commercial and societal potential of research projects carried out at European institutions. Roca-Cusachs' project, INTROPY, focuses on the inhibition of mechanotransduction as a potential therapy against cancer or fibrosis.

In a paper published in Science Bulletin, a Chinese team of scientists reported a comprehensive proteogenomic analysis of 101 Chinese AML patients, including proteomic and phosphoproteomic analyses and an in vitro drug sensitivity analysis in addition to whole exome and transcriptome sequencing. They integrated multi-omic data to predict and validate patient prognosis and drug sensitivity. They revealed three subtypes based on proteome, where S-II and S-III characterized mainly by metabolism and could benefit from Allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, but S-I enriched in tumour proliferation could not. Further correlation analysis of 77 drugs sensitivity with proteomic and phosphoproteomic data uncovered the therapeutic strategies of cytarabine-disulfiram and PI3K inhibitor-PDK inhibitor combinations.  Overall, the research provide a resource for understanding the molecular alterations in AML and developing potential therapeutic strategies.

Ovarian cancer, a deadly gynecologic malignancy, has seen a significant shift in its treatment paradigm with the introduction of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, which are now standard in the maintenance setting following first-line chemotherapy. This retrospective cohort study investigates the real-world effectiveness and safety of olaparib, a PARP inhibitor, in patients with newly diagnosed advanced-stage, high-grade serous ovarian cancer who are HRD positive but BRCA wild-type, a demographic less extensively explored in previous research. The primary goal was to assess the 1-year progression-free survival (PFS) rate of olaparib maintenance therapy in this specific patient group, offering insights into its potential as a therapeutic option.