Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR) has signed an alliance with the "http://www.uta.edu.ec/v2.0/" Universidad Técnica de Ambato, in Ecuador, to promote the exchange of professors and students, organize training activities, and aid in the execution of common research projects. Dr. Juan Ángel Recio, head of the VHIR Melanoma Group, and Mileydis Perez, researcher of the same group, will be in charge of monitoring the activities and common projects between the two centers. As a first project, researchers of both centers will study the role in metabolism of the enzymatic complex aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) and the resistance to therapeutic treatments of the tumor stem cells. This research, that will last 3 years, aims to determinate the biomolecular function of the ALDH isoforms in the control of the cellular death of the tumor stem cells in lung cancer and identifying new targets for the treatment of the illness.