16 th ANNIVERSARY LECTURE & International Day of Women And Girls in Science

 

Anniversary Lecture

16 th ANNIVERSARY LECTURE & International Day of Women And Girls in Science

Marisol Soengas, PhD

16 th ANNIVERSARY LECTURE & International Day of Women And Girls in Science The long-term goal of the Soengas Laboratory is to translate basic research in melanoma into the clinic by identifying novel tumour markers and drug targets. Her group is particularly interested in mechanisms of cellular stress that being selectively deregulated in melanoma, define lineage-specific vulnerabilities (publications in Cell, Cancer Cell, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Communications, among others). Her group has also generated first-in-class lymphoreporter mice for non-invasive imaging of pre-metastatic niches in melanoma, which have lead to the identification of novel mechanisms of tumor progression and evasion of the immune system (Nature, Nature Medicine). Results from her laboratory have also served as the basis for the constitution of Bioncotech Therapeutics (now Highlight Therapeutics), a company with an anticancer compound in clinical trials in patients. Soengas has received over 20 awards in the last 10 years, including the Outstanding Research Investigator by the Society for Melanoma Research or the Fritz Anders Medal of the European Society for Pigment Cell Research (ESPCR), among others. She is the founder of the Women in Science Group at the Spanish Association for Cancer Research, and has also received ample recognition for fostering and empowering women scientists. For these activities, she received the Women in Science Research Team Science Award of L´Oreal-Melanoma Research Alliance, or the Elsa Medrano Memorial Award of the SMR. She has been voted within the “Top100 Women Leaders in Spain” (Women & Cia) in 2018, 2019 and 2020. In 2019 she received the Sesderma Award for Influential Women in Science and Innovation, and the Ciencia y Mujer 2019 by WomenCEO. She was recently elected to the Royal Academy of Pharmacy in Spain. In January 2023 she will become the President of the Spanish Association of Research Against Cancer (ASEICA), acting in the interim time as Vicepresident and President-Elect.