The Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute (IJC) is a comprehensive cancer research center dedicated to researching and promoting innovation in the epidemiological, preventive, clinical, translational and basic aspects of leukemia and other hematological malignancies, with the objective end of finding a cure for these diseases. It was created in 2010, and since then, it has experienced exponential growth.
The IJC is also part of the network of Research Centers of Excellence of Catalonia (CERCA) and was accredited as a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities in 2024. Since 2018, the Institute has also been accredited by the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (FCAECC) In addition, the IJC is one of the centers integrated into the accreditation of the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) as an Accredited Health Research Institute (IIS) by the Health Institute Charles III (ISCIII).
The IJC main headquarters is located within the Can Ruti Biomedical Campus, together with other leading biomedical institutions, providing direct access to cutting-edge scientific and technological facilities, as well as complementary community services. The IJC has six headquarters integrated into reference hospitals: Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Hospital Clínic, Hospital Sant Pau, Hospital Trueta, Hospital del Mar and Hospital San Joan de Déu. This facilitates close collaboration between basic and clinical researchers, fostering translational research that integrates basic science with clinical practice in clinical settings.
We are seeking a Predoctoral Researcher for our institute.
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION
Aggressive B-cell lymphomas are clinically and pathologically diverse and reflect multiple pathways of transformation involving, among others, oncogenic signaling, lymphoma-stroma crosstalk and intrinsic protein homeostasis. Alterations in these highly regulated processes play a key role in the progression of the malignant clone and correlate with a high failure rate in treatment protocols. In the last decade, new therapies applied to the treatment of B-cell lymphoma have significantly improved the overall survival of these patients, but at present no drug can cure these diseases. At the origin of the gap between promising preclinical results and failure in clinical phase II/III, conventional preclinical models lack predictive value in the main trials carried out in these cancer subtypes. For the design of new therapies more selective and more suited to the biology of these lymphomas, our team focuses on the characterization of new drug targets and on the bench-to-bedside translation of innovative therapeutic strategies, using cutting-edge experimental models of diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and transformed follicular lymphoma (tFL). Please also visit our unit webpage:
https://www.carrerasresearch.org/en/research/lymphoma-translational-group.
This contract is financed by the Department of Research and Universities of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Agency for Management of University Research Grants (AGAUR), within the framework of the call "Grants to support the scientific activity of the Research Groups of Catalonia (SGR-Cat-2021)“, Research group Personalized therapies and molecular bases of aggressive B-cell lymphomas (TRANSFORB), reference 2021 SGR 01535.
MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES
- To participate in a research project centered on the design, synthesis and biological validation of a proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) library targeting a specific oncogenic pathway in malignant B cells.
- To setup a collection of in vitro (3D spheroids) and in vivo (cell line- and patient-derived mice and chicken embryo chorioallantoic membranes (CAM) xenografts) for efficacy and safety studies.
- To develop analytical tools (multiomics, cell-based assays, in vitro/vivo imaging)
- To undertake experimental design, data analysis and interpretation.