Implication of p73 in tumorogenesis

The interest of our group is focused on the detailed molecular and behavioral understanding of colorectal human primary tumors, and the development of different strategies for its possible application to the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of cancer patients. In the last decade several international groups, including ours, have described the aberrant expression of different p73 isoforms (pro- and anti-tumoral variants), homolog of the p53 tumor suppressor, in different human tumors and its association with shorter patients survival. Our group is trying to identify through in vitro approaches, the use of immune-deficient mice and human samples the different stages of the tumorigenesis process in which the oncogenic variant ΔNp73 is involved. We are currently focused on unravelling its role in chemoresistance processes and tumor dissemination, which is the area where the Master student will develop his/her work.