Seminar

Bladder cancer progression: linking -omics, functional analyses, and biomarkers

Marta Sánchez- Carbayo, PhD

Doctor Marta Sánchez- Carbayo’s group research aims to characterize molecular mechanisms taking place in bladder cancer pathogenesis, and to translate the information of such analyses into biomarker tools that would improve the clinical management of bladder cancer patients. Their experimental strategy starts by integrating the information from the molecular characterization of bladder tumors using high-throughput approaches at the DNA, RNA and protein levels. Subsequent studies are designed: a) to understand how selected identified targets contribute to tumorigenesis and cancer progression; and b) to translate such information into multiplexed biomarkers using tissue (for disease stratification and outcome prediction) and body fluids (for early diagnosis and follow-up). More specifically, the major techniques we are currently investing on are epigenetic and proteomic approaches. Both are applied for identifying and validating individual and multiplexed biomarkers in clinical specimens, while proteomic approaches are additionally exploited for understanding molecular pathways by which genes of their interest (myopodin and KiSS-1, and others) are involved in bladder cancer. Their biomarker studies aim to address the four major clinical needs in bladder cancer: diagnosis, surveillance, progression into invasive and metastatic disease, and predict therapeutic response to the Bacille of Calmette-Guerin and cisplatin combinations. Doctor Marta Sánchez- Carbayo’s group studies have a strong translational direction, to apply the obtained results to the clinical management of bladder cancer patients. Lacking specific biomarkers and targeted therapies in routine practice in bladder cancer, they plan to exploit the information generated in high-throughput approaches to study novel candidates identified in these analyses. They characterize selected candidates differentially expressed at critical steps of bladder cancer progression identified by their previous transcriptomic analyses and integrating them with epigenetic and proteomic profiling. The functional characterization of such candidates is not only contributing to uncover mechanisms by which they may play a role in bladder cancer, but also to redefine the stages where they may be most useful as tumor markers or potential targets. In their second line of research activities, they are optimizing sample handling and protocols to implement high-throughput approaches for body fluids, and delineate multiplexed and individual biomarkers that may address the major clinical needs for bladder cancer.