IRB Barcelona_C2-11: Using Drosophila melanogaster to identify new targets to inhibit malignant growth

This project will cover the following aspects: malignant growth, cancer testis antigens, Drosophila, l(3)mbt, cancer therapy

The research project is fully integrated into the main activities and interests of the laboratory. In our research group, we model cancer in flies to understand the cellular changes that drive malignant growth and to identify conserved mechanisms that might be relevant for human cancer therapy.

We focus on the mechanisms of malignant transformation in larval brains. We have revealed that neuroblasts can originate tumours if the process of self-renewing asymmetric division is disrupted. We have discovered a fly model of human tumours characterized by the ectopic expression of Cancer Testis antigens and revealed a functional requirement for some of those genes for tumour growth.

We have described a method to assay the tumourigenic potential of Drosophila mutant tissues. We also maintain a very active line of research to identify new centrosomal proteins and found some with human orthologs that are linked to human pathologies. We also work on the mechanisms that bring about genome instability in Drosophila tumours. For our research, we develop and make extensive use of microscopy techniques.

Eligibility Criteria
To be admitted to the review process, candidates must comply with the following eligibility criteria:

• Presenting complete applications including all requested compulsory information and documentation.

• Having not spent more than 12 months of the prior 36 months in Spain, at the time of the call deadline. You will be required to confirm your compliance through a self-declaration.

• Hold a University degree (by the time of enrollment in the PhD program) that would qualify the applicant to enter one of the PhD programmes recognized by the BIST research centers. These have formal agreements with the major Catalan Universities (UB, UAB, UPC, URV, and UPF) whereby BIST senior researchers (generally of professorial rank and enjoying international recognition) are accredited to supervise PhD students, who do their research at BIST research centres and obtain their degree from the corresponding university. Please provide evidence when you apply (e.g. scanned copy of your degree or similar).

• At the time of the call deadline, be in the first 4 years of your scientific post gradual career (full-time equivalent research experience). In case your University degree was longer ago than 4 years, you will need to provide documental evidence for complying with this criteria.

• Having not been awarded yet a PhD degree.