i3S wins six oncology research grants from LPCC
The i3S won 6 of the 15 scientific research fellowships in oncology awarded this year by the Portuguese League Against Cancer – Northern Regional Center (LPCC-NRN). This funding will allow researchers Isabel Pereira-Castro, Ana Luísa Machado, Andreia Matos, Maria Miguel Castro, Marta Duque, and Rita Carvalho to develop their work for a year.
In the category of “Advanced Research Grants 2025”, awarded to five PhD researchers, the i3S researcher Isabel Pereira-Castro was rewarded for the project “SMOKE-RNA”, which aims to “investigate three mRNA signatures present in cancers associated with smoking (lung, head and neck and bladder), aiming to fill the gap in specific biomarkers for these types of cancer”.
This project, which is the result of a collaboration between the “Gene Regulation” group, which Isabel Pereira-Castro is a member, and the IPO “Experimental Pathology & Therapeutics” group, “we will study the physiological function of these mRNA signatures and determine their clinical relevance”. The objective, explains the researcher, “is to identify potential biomarkers that can be used in the diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of response to treatment in patients with cancers caused by tobacco smoke”.
In the case of the “Research Initiation Grants”, worth 14,400 euros and intended for master researchers, projects in the areas of colorectal, kidney, breast, pancreatic cancer, and brain metastases were awarded.
The research by Ana Luísa Machado, from the i3S group “Tumour and Microenvironment Interactions” focuses on colorectal cancer and the long-distance communication that colon and rectal tumors establish with the hematopoietic system (organs responsible for the production of immune cells). This communication, she explains, “causes significant changes that can compromise the body’s immune response to cancer. This study, says the researcher, “aims to explore this mechanism to understand the real consequences on the formation and progression of tumors”.
Also working in the group “Tumour and Microenvironment Interactions”, Andreia Matos will “explore the relationship between obesity and kidney cancer, with a special focus on the interaction between adipocytes around the kidney, tumor cells and immune cells. We believe that understanding these mechanisms will contribute to deepening our knowledge about the progression of kidney cancer”.
Focused on inflammatory breast cancer, one of the most aggressive and fatal invasive breast cancers, Maria Miguel Castro’s project will focus on the main characteristic of this type of neoplasia: the presence of tumor emboli in the blood vessels in the early stages of the disease, which contribute for its high metastatic capacity.
The researcher from the “Cancer Metastasis” group, explains that these tumor emboli “present overexpression of proteins that are associated with poor prognosis in patients with breast cancer and resistance to radio and chemotherapy”. However, she explains, “the suppression of these proteins is not enough to lead to the death of these tumor cells”. Recently, the team demonstrated that another molecular mechanism may underlie the high resistance to death after cell adhesion is inhibited. The objective of this project is, therefore, to “study whether the combination of cell adhesion inhibition and this mechanism can represent a new therapeutic strategy for this disease”.
The challenge for Marta Duque, from the i3S group “Vertebrate Development and Regeneration”, is to study pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the main type of pancreatic cancer and one of the most lethal in humans. “We want to understand how certain changes in DNA, which do not directly affect genes, change the functioning of pancreatic cells and increase the risk of developing this type of cancer,” she explains.
Rita Carvalho, from the “Cancer Metastasis” group, in turn, will focus on the process of brain metastasis in breast cancer, one of the biggest challenges in the treatment of this type of neoplasia due to the limited therapeutic options and unfavorable prognosis. This project, she explains, “focuses on VGF, a protein secreted by breast tumor cells, which plays a crucial role in the process of brain metastasis. The objective is to investigate whether we can act on the receptors of this protein and develop new, more effective therapies”.
About LPCC-NRN Oncology Research Fellowships
The Oncology Research Grants of the Portuguese League Against Cancer – Northern Regional Center (LPCC-NRN) aim to support innovative projects in the area of oncology, contributing to scientific advancement and improving oncological care. With these scholarships, LPCC-NRN reaffirms its commitment to promoting excellent scientific research in Portugal, driving significant advances in the fight against cancer.