About the VHIR
Here at the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) we promote biomedical research, innovation and teaching. Over 1,800 people are seeking to understand diseases today so the treatment can be improved tomorrow.
Research
We are working to understand diseases, to find out how they operate and to create better treatments for patients. Get to know about our groups and their lines of research.
People
People are the centre of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). This is why we are bound by the principles of freedom of research, gender equality and professional attitudes that HRS4R promotes.
Clinical trials
Our work is not just basic or translational; we are leaders in clinical research. Enter and find about the clinical trials we are conducting and why we are a world reference in this field.
Progress
Our aim is to make the research carried out at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) a driving force for transformation. How? By identifying new channels and solutions for the promotion of people's health and well-being.
Core facilities
We offer specialist support for researchers, internal and external alike, ranging from specific services to preparing complete projects. All this, from a perspective of quality and speed of response.
News
We offer you a gateway for staying up to date on everything going on at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), from the latest news to future solidarity activities and initiatives that we are organising.
Speaker: Beatriz Villafranca Magdalena, Biomedical research in gynecology (VHIR)
Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecological cancer in developed countries. Mortality rates in patients with high-risk and recurrent EC are elevated due to limited treatment options and the high chemoresistance of the tumors. The Cancer Dependency Map (DepMap) initiative aims to dramatically accelerate precision cancer medicine by systematically identifying the landscape of cancer vulnerabilities across all tumors. In this study, our goal is to identify selective dependencies in EC by genome-wide CRISPR screens using high-risk patient-derived organoid models.
For this, we selected five high-risk patient-derived endometrial cancer organoid models to perform genome-wide CRISPR viability screens. We develop methods to perform these screens using a Cas12a based library with 4 sgRNAs targeting the same genes with 2 sgRNA per construct for a total of ~20,000 genes. One of the four models screened, a uterine carcinosarcoma, was integrated with all the other screens in DepMap to identify selective dependencies. Among the identified dependencies, we selected two for which drugs are available in clinical trials, to perform drug sensitivity profiling in a larger panel of EC and non-EC organoid models. The preliminary results of the target inhibitors tested in our model seem to be promising, validating the CRISPR screen and identifying a new potential therapeutic target.
Ultimately, thanks to the inclusion of additional endometrial cancer screens, we expect to identify additional selective hits in endometrial models and enrich the landscape of potential druggable targets for endometrial cancer, approaching precision medicine of this disease.
Host: Dr. Eva Colas Ortega, Head of group Biomedical Research in Gynaecology (VHIR)