Events
O xoves 12 de febreiro, o Dr. Manuel Valiente (Senior Group Leader, Brain Metastasis Group. CNIO. Madrid.) ofrecerá o seminario “Exploiting microenvironment heterogeneity to challenge brain metastases in mice and human" dentro do ciclo CINBIO Seminar Programme.
Será ás 11:00 horas na Sala de seminarios de Torre CACTI.
ABSTRACT:
Brain metastases exploit and rewire the brain microenvironment into a pro-tumoral niche. Using single-cell profiling, functional studies, and translational models, we identified distinct astrocyte and microglia/macrophage subpopulations with critical roles in metastasis progression and immune evasion. Within astrocytes, we discovered that the STAT3⁺ subpopulation secretes TIMP1, which suppresses CD8⁺ T-cell activity, unveiling a novel local immunosuppressive mechanism. In microglia/macrophages, we identified a CD74⁺ subpopulation reprogrammed by tumour-derived MIF to drive disease through a non-canonical NF-κB pathway, targetable with the brain-penetrant drug ibudilast. Finally, we translated these findings into patient-derived organotypic cultures, enabling preclinical testing of microenvironment-targeted therapies. Our work exposes novel therapeutic vulnerabilities and provides a framework for developing microenvironment-focused clinical strategies in brain metastases.
BIO:
Manuel Valiente is the Head of the Brain Metastasis Group at CNIO (2015-present). He investigates the biology of brain metastasis in order to challenge this unmet clinical need using his background in Neuroscience (PhD, Instituto de Neurociencias, 2005-2009) and Cancer Biology (Postdoc, MSKCC, 2010-2014).
Specifically, his laboratory studies novel brain metastasis mediators, characterizes the metastasis-associated microenvironment, designs better experimental models and explores novel methods to prevent and to target brain metastasis, including the frequent impact on brain activity. All these aims consider the brain environment as a critical component to understand the biology of this progression of cancer.
Dr. Valiente has co-founded the first National Network of Brain Metastasis (RENACER) in Spain, which is allowing his team to speed up the translation of laboratory findings to the clinic in collaboration with the 21 associated hospitals.
His contributions to brain metastasis research have been recognized with the Constantes y Vitales Award, Banco Sabadell Award, ASPIRE Award, ERC CoG, EMBO YIP, CLIP Award, Beug Foundation’s Prize for Metastasis Research, Bristol-Myers Squibb-MRA Young Investigator Award among others.
He is Board Member and Treasurer of EANO (2024-), Board Member of the Metastasis Research Society (MRS). Other past responsibilities include Chair of the Scientific Committee EANO (2022-2024), ESMO faculty member (CNS Tumours faculty group, 2020-2024), EACR Panel of Reviewers (2022-2024).
