Stem Cells

According to the cancer stem cell model (CSC), tumors comprise a subpopulation of cells able to self-renew and drive the processes of differentiation that contribute to tumor heterogeneity. CSCs are resistant to conventional therapies and are thought to be responsible for local relapse and metastatic recurrence during the evolution of several tumors, including breast cancer. Interestingly, the “CSC-state” seems to be a dynamic condition, capable of being acquired or lost by tumor cells. These changes include both epigenetic and metabolic reprogramming, the latter accomplished by the reactivation of key pathways, such as the mevalonic acid pathway, required for the synthesis of cholesterol and isoprenoids. In this sense, our area of research has four main research lines:

1- Study the role of different members of the mevalonic acid (MVA) pathway during the acquirement of the CSC-state in cellular models of breast cancer.

2- Generation and characterization, by reprogramming technology or tumorspheres, of putative CSC models, using cell lines derived from the different molecular subtypes of breast cancer.

3- Study the effects of the inhibition of key members of the MVA pathway during the establishment of the CSC phenotype.

4- Development of mathematical/computational models of CSC dynamics in tumorspheres in collaboration with experts from the Mathematical Biology Group at The Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina.