Metabolism & Cancer Stem Cells

Patricia Sancho, PhD: Principal Investigator

I’m a Cellular Biologist, passionate about science and, especially, about cancer research.

I obtained by PhD in 2004 and moved to Paris (Pasteur Institute) for a first short posdoct. After that, I joined Dt. Isabel Fabregat´s lab in 2006 at IDIBELL (Barcelona, Spain). In 2012, I joined Prof. Heeschen´s group at CNIO (Madrid) as staff scientist. I started my independent career as a Lecturer at Barts Cancer Institute (London, UK) in 2014 and moved the lab to Zaragoza (IIS Aragón) in 2017.

Funding this group has been the most amazing adventure, and I feel grateful and proud of each one of its members. Team work is our most representative value!

Sarah Courtois, PhD: postdoctoral researcher

One day at school, our teacher started talking about the human body. Since then, I am fascinated by the beauty and the complexity of this wonderful machine. Understand how it works, decipher the mechanisms and particularly contribute to identify new therapeutic targets to treat cancer, it is what I like in my job. I obtained my PhD in 2017 in Bordeaux (France) where I worked on gastric cancer in the Bordeaux Research Translational Oncology Unit (BaRITOn, Inserm U1053). Then, in 2018, I obtained an Assistant Professor position for one year in the same lab, to teach in the University of Bordeaux and to continue my projects. Now, I have just joined Dr. Sancho’s lab in Zaragoza as Postdoc, for 3 years of an enriching experience.

Beatriz Parejo, Msc: PhD student

I’m an athlete member of the Spanish Softball National Team. I’ve graduated in Biomedical Science at University of Barcelona (UB) where I was born. I had the opportunity to be trained by Dr. Sancho in the area of cancer research at IDIBELL (Barcelona) a while ago when I was studying my 2-year specialty in Pathological Anatomy prior to start my university degree. In 2014 I moved to Bolonia (Italy) with an Erasmus scholarship to perform my degree project while I had the opportunity to play the Italian Softball League with Old Parma BSC. In 2016 I finished my masters studies at VHIR (Barcelona). A year later, I started this new and fresh adventure by joining Dr. Sancho’s lab first as a research technician and now doing my PhD!

Pilar Espiau Romera: lab technician

Since I was very young I have been interested in biology. At first it was in a general way to find out what would make everything work properly in nature. Later I was intrigued by the way in which human beings can take advantage of biology knowledge to improve their health. I was graduated in Biotechnology by the Universidad de Zaragoza. During my fourth degree course I participated in the Erasmus program in KU Leuven (Belgium), where developed  the thesis for my final degree project. During course 2019-2020 I have done a Master on Molecular Biomedicine in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). I did several summer practicums in Dr. Sancho´s lab and also my Master thesis on PDAC stratification. Now I have been hired for 1,5 years and I hope I can contribute a lot to the group.

Former members of the group

Former Msc and Bsc students

Nitin Sewani, Msc. Msc student (03/15-08/15). Msc thesis: “Drug Sensitivity Profiling of Metformin-Resistant Cancer (Stem) Cells”.

Amy Rose Hudson. Undergrad student (09/16-02/17). Bsc thesis: “Cellular effects of the inhibition of the tyrosine kinase receptor ALK in Pancreatic Cancer”.

Former visiting students