Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute
Edifici IMPPC
Can Ruti Campus
Ctra de Can Ruti, Camí de les Escoles s/n
08916 Badalona, Barcelona, Spain
Directions
Our research is focused on Acute lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) disease, including B-cell precursor and T-precursor ALL. We want to resolve questions that require a full range of research from from basic to clinical. We aim to provide the physician with new tools, by using basic research data that will have an impact on healthcare, in order to improve survival rates in patients with this type of leukaemia.
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia is still a non-curable neoplasia mainly in adult patients. The survival rates for ALL are much lower in adults than in children. The reasons for this survival difference lie largely in the higher frequency of poor prognosis subtypes of ALL in adults and a poorer tolerance of the treatment as age increases. Except for selected subgroups (i.e., Ph+ ALL), the current therapeutic protocols for ALL do not take into account the differences in the molecular background of the disease, and few new alternative therapies are only available in refractory or resistant ALL. Therefore, if we want to improve the survival of patients with ALL we first need to obtain detailed and relevant molecular information to enable doctors to accurately define the risk and decide on the treatment. Secondly, we need to have specific therapeutic alternatives available to apply to these new oncogenetic ALL subgroups.
The current research of the group at the IJC Institute can be divided in two main areas:
1: Clinical research: Design and analysis of the results of the Spanish treatment protocols on adult ALL in the setting of the Spanish PETHEMA group (Programa Español de Tratamientos en Hematología).
2. Biologic and translational research:
The ALL Group is currently evaluating the frequency and prognostic significance of new genetic markers in B- and T- lineage ALL. The results of this study, which are in line with the results found by other ALL working groups, will be applied in the new therapeutic protocols in ALL of the PETHEMA group.
In addition, we want to assess the anti-leukemic effect of the available drugs that specifically target candidate genes in an in vivo model. We also want to check if copy number alterations (CNAs) identified in other blood neoplasias such as; Acute Myeloblastic Leukaemia (AML), Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) and Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CLL), or in solid cancers such as Melanoma and Breast Cancer, could also have an impact on ALL. We expect that the results obtained, will be used to re-classify ALL patients into different oncogenetic subgroups according to the predicted treatment response and the specific target therapy to be applied.
The identification of clonal heterogeneity in ALL at the time of diagnosis has introduced a high order of complexity to the disease. It is this clonal heterogeneity that is responsible for patient’s relapses, in which treatment has failed. Future projects in the group will be focused on the characterization of leukemic cells resistant to treatment using a genetic and functional approach.
| Name | Position | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| José María Ribera |  | Group Leader | jmribera@carrerasresearch.org |
| Eulàlia Genesca |  | Postdoctoral Investigator | egenesca@carrerasresearch.org |
| Jordi Ribera |  | Postdoctoral Investigator | jribera@carrerasresearch.org |
| Olga Garcia |  | Statistician | ogarcia@carrerasresearch.org |
| Project leader: | José María Ribera |
|---|---|
| Code: | PI14/01971 |
| Funding: | |
| Start date: | 01/01/2015 |
| End date: | 31/12/2017 |
| Project leader: | Eulàlia Genesca |
|---|---|
| Code: | CELGENE T-ALL |
| Funding: | |
| Start date: | 01/01/2014 |
| End date: | 31/12/2016 |
| Project leader: | José María Ribera |
|---|---|
| Code: | GC16173697BIGA |
| Funding: | |
| Start date: | 01/11/2016 |
| End date: | 31/10/2021 |
| Project leader: | José María Ribera |
|---|---|
| Code: | 116026 HARMONY H2020 JTI-IMI2 2015-06 |
| Funding: | |
| Start date: | 01/01/2017 |
| End date: | 31/12/2021 |
| Project leader: | José María Ribera |
|---|---|
| Code: | Curs AMGEN ALL |
| Funding: | |
| Start date: | 01/01/2018 |
| End date: | 31/12/2018 |
| Project leader: | José María Ribera |
|---|---|
| Code: | AMG169 |
| Funding: | |
| Start date: | 01/01/2017 |
| End date: | 31/12/2018 |
| Project leader: | José María Ribera |
|---|---|
| Code: | SLT002/16/00433 |
| Funding: | |
| Start date: | 01/04/2017 |
| End date: | 31/12/2019 |
| Project leader: | José María Ribera |
|---|---|
| Code: | RD12/0036/0829 |
| Funding: | |
| Start date: | 01/01/2011 |
| End date: | 30/06/2014 |
| Project leader: | Francesc Solé |
|---|---|
| Code: | 2014SGR225 |
| Funding: | |
| Start date: | 01/01/2015 |
| End date: | 31/12/2017 |
