Multi-omics in the fight against leukemia

The Project

This project will bring you to the most fundamental and challenging questions in cancer: what caused a tumor and how to fix it?

By using state-of-the-art genomics and epigenomics methodologies you, together with your team and top researchers in the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, will process and analyze real samples to peer into its genomic and methylome alterations, two of the strongest driving forces of malignant transformation.

In the first part of the project, you will join our T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia researchers to know more about the disease and start processing a set of real samples for sequencing, using standard molecular biology procedures. In the second part, you will join our researchers from the Cancer Epigenetics Lab and understand what epigenetics is all about and why its alteration may turn cellular identity upside down. You will further process the samples to get its full methylome and complement the information given by the genomics approach.

At the Genomics Core Facility of the Josep Carreras Institute, you will help our technical staff in the final processing of your samples and understand how to extract all those information from them. With their help, you will analyze the results and discuss on the potential origin of the disease and possible personalized therapeutical strategies.

 

Matching profiles

Students with a strong interest in biomedicine and life sciences research will get the most of the course. Also, students interested in medicine and bioethics will have the opportunity to participate in debates on privacy and the limits of genetic information in the clinic.

Learning objectives
  • Learn the basics of translational cancer research and the huge potential of molecular information for diagnosis and therapy selection
  • Get basic skills in standard molecular biology protocols of DNA extraction and high throughput sequencing.
  • Understand and get familiar with the research environment through direct contact with actual researchers and scientific discussion.

Contents

 

Required materials

Laptop and lab coat.

Coordinators of the project

Alberto Bueno

  • PhD. In Biomedicine for the Universitat de Barcelona (Spain) and Associate professor.
  • Author of 7 research papers in the last 5 years.
  • Researcher at the Cancer Epigenetics Lab

Eulàlia Genescà

  • PhD. In Molecular Genetics at the Institut de Recerca Oncològica on the functional role of unknown genes at the 21st chromosome.
  • Postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Genomic Regulation (Barcelona) and the Institut Curie in Orsay (France) and the Institut Universitaire d'Hematologie (France).
  • Leader of the T-ALL Lab at the Josep Carreras Institute (Spain) where she is focusing on copy number alterations in T-ALL prognosis.

Damiana Álvarez

  • PhD. In Life Sciences at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain).
  • Postdoctoral fellow at IDIBAPS and IDIBELL’s Cancer Epigenetic and Biology Program.
  • Research Associate and Head of Genomics Unit at the Josep Carreras Institute.
Associated researchers

Thaysa Lopes

  • Genetic specialist by the University of Positivo (Brasil)
  • Researcher at the T-ALL Lab

Celia González

  • Biotechnology bachelor at the Universitat Politècnica de València and Msc. in Biomedicine at the Universitat de Barcelona.
  • PhD. Student at the T-ALL Lab of the Josep Carreras Institute.

Laura Martínez

  • Msc. In Experimental and Medical Biosciences by the Linköping University (Sweden)
  • Author of 4 research publications in the last 5 years.
  • Researcher at the Cancer Epigenetics Lab
The center

Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute

The Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute is a non-profit research institute based in Barcelona, dedicated to biomedical research and personalized medicine in leukemia and other malignant blood diseases.

More about the center