Dr. Trond Aasen, principal investigator of the Translational Molecular Pathology group of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), with the support of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC), has developed a new strategy to identify genes, drugs and cellular pathways that regulate the metastasis process using laboratory models.Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer death, so it is essential to understand the mechanisms by which the tumor spreads to other parts of the body, in order to seek new treatments. However, simple laboratory models were lacking to allow their study. In this work, the researchers have developed a method that would allow a first preliminary analysis to be carried out quickly and affordably.One way of working with cells in the laboratory is adherent culture, in which cells grow attached to a surface, similar to how they would in body tissues, surrounded by a liquid that provides the right conditions to grow. But, sometimes, some of these cells detach from the rest of the cells and the surface where they were attached and remain floating in the liquid that surrounds the culture. The researchers studied which genes were activated in these shedding cells and confirmed that they have characteristics similar to those that occur when a cell detaches from the tumor and travels through the body, thus being able to be used to study the metastasis process.The project has the collaboration of Cegasa.