Our main aim is to develop new anticancer treatments based on novel designs of oncolytic adenoviruses, combining them with mesenchymal stem cells and cellular therapies derived from tumor reactive T-lymphocytes against solid tumors.
The Cancer Immunotherapy group, led by Dr Piulats and Dr Alemany, is dedicated to develop new immunotherapies based on oncolytic adenoviruses or advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) to treat the so-called “cold” tumors and rare malignancies. Oncolytic viruses represent a double antitumor strategy: they have an oncolytic activity and on top of that, they promote lymphocyte infiltration and immune responses against tumors. We are designing and evaluating new oncolytic adenovirus to improve their Intratumor diffusion and tumor reactivity and testing those using murine models. We are developing CAR-NK cells models, cell therapies based on autoreactive TCRs from patients and combined ATMP using virus and mesenchymal stem cells. We combine clinical and translational research, and we have led different clinical trials based on immunotherapy, demonstrating the feasibility of immunotherapy approaches to treat this kind of tumors.
Group members
Group leaders
Group leaders
Principal investigator
Postdocoral researcher
Postdocoral researcher
Postdocoral researcher
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Lab Manager
Technician
Project manager
Publications
J Immunother Cancer. 2021 Nov;9(11):e003254. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2021-003254. ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by dense desmoplastic stroma that limits the delivery of anticancer agents. VCN-01 is an oncolytic adenovirus designed to replicate in cancer cells with a dysfunctional RB1 pathway and express hyaluronidase. Here, we evaluated the mechanism of action of VCN-01 in […]
Mol Ther Oncolytics. 2022 Jan 10;24:429-442. doi: 10.1016/j.omto.2022.01.003. eCollection 2022 Mar 17. ABSTRACT Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of metastatic melanoma, but most tumors show resistance. Resistance is connected to a non-T cell inflamed phenotype partially caused by a lack of functional dendritic cells (DCs) that are crucial for T cell priming. Herein, […]
Nat Med. 2022 Jan;28(1):144-153. doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01600-6. Epub 2022 Jan 10. ABSTRACT Early clinical data indicate that some patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer may benefit from program death ligand-1 (PD-L1) inhibition, especially with enzalutamide. The IMbassador250 trial (no. NCT03016312) enrolled 759 men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer whose disease progressed on abiraterone. The addition of atezolizumab […]
Clin Cancer Res. 2021 Dec 15;27(24):6677-6686. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-21-2199. Epub 2021 Oct 1. ABSTRACT PURPOSE: The PARP inhibitor rucaparib is approved in the United States for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) and a deleterious germline and/or somatic BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA) alteration. While sequencing of tumor tissue is considered the standard for identifying patients […]
Dermatol Ther (Heidelb). 2021 Oct;11(5):1777-1790. doi: 10.1007/s13555-021-00598-6. Epub 2021 Sep 23. ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: Pembrolizumab provided durable responses and acceptable safety in recurrent or metastatic (R/M) cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) in the KEYNOTE-629 study. In this elderly, fragile population with disfiguring tumours, preservation of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is critical. Here, we present pre-specified […]
Research Projects
Name: Dr Ramón Alemany Bonastre
Role: Group leader (coPI)
Name: Dr Josep Maria Piulats Rodríguez, MD
Role: Group leader (coPI)
Name: Dr Rafael Moreno Olié
Role: Principal Investigator
Name: Dr María Dolores López Robles
Role: Postdoctoral researcher
Name: Dr Marcel Costa García
Role: Postdoctoral Researcher
Name: Dr Gabriel Espinosa Carrasco
Role: Postdoctoral researcher
Name: Sílvia Torres Manjón
Role: Lab manager
Name: Laura Moya Borrrego
Role: Predoctoral Researcher
Name: Pau Fiol Mata
Role: Predoctoral Researcher
Name: Luís Paul del Carpio Huerta, MD
Role: Predoctoral Researcher (Rio Ortega contract)
Name: Juan Antonio Marín Jiménez, MD
Role: Predoctoral Researcher (La Caixa- Inphinit Retaining)
Name: Sebastián Ciro Carné Martín
Role: Predoctoral Researcher
Name: Ainhoa Muñoz Metrino
Role: Technician
Name: Dr Carles Codony Servat
Role: Project manager
Collaborations
Dr Alemany has published 129 articles, several book chapters and 16 patents (5 in the exploitation phase) in the field of therapeutic use of adenoviruses as gene vectors or oncolytic viruses. Editor of the journals “Gene Therapy” “Cancer Gene Therapy” and “Human Gene Therapy”, President of the Spanish Society of Gene and Cellular Therapy from 2016 to 2018, and advisor to several biotech companies that develop oncolytic viruses (ORCA Therapeutics, Oncolytics Biotech, Sagetis). In 2009 he co-founded the company VCN Biosciences. GHe collaborates among othersc with: Cristina Fillat Fonts, IDIBAPS; Juan José Rojas Expósito, IDIBELL; Javier García Castro, ISCIII , Madrid; Manuel Ramírez Orellana, Hosp Niño Jesús, Madrid; Alena Gros Vidal, VHIO; Sonia Guedan Carrió, IDIBAPS.
Dr Piulats is chair for Uveal Melanoma in the Spanish Melanoma group. He is part of the IRCI (International Rare Cancer Initiative) and EURACAN for rare melanoma and rare cutaneous tumors. He collaborates with Dr Alvaro Aytes (Idibell) and Dr Himisha Beltran (Dana Farber) in prostate cancer (projects Fundación Mútua Madrileña and DoD Prostate Cancer) and with Dr Xavier Matías-Guiu and Dr Alena Gros in Gynecologic tumors (La MaratóTV3, Immune4all in Ayudas de Proyectos de Investigación de Medicina Personalizada de Precisión). He collaborates with Dr Moreno (ICO-Idibell) and Dr África González Murillo (Hospital Universitario del Niño Jesús) in the PULSE-UM clinical study and with Dr Juan Marín Liberal (ICO), Drs Alena Gros, Elena Garralda (VHIO), Dr Sergi Querol (Banc de sang i Teixits) and Dr Jesús García-Donas Jiménez (Centro Integral Oncológico Clara Campal) (Proyectos Clinica Independiente – ISCIII).
Presently Dr Piulats has begun a collaboration asking for new funding for novel treatments in metastatic uveal melanoma with Alena Gros (VHIO), Gal Cafri and Yochai Wolf from Sheba Research Institute in Israel and Udai Kammula from UPMC in USA.
Dr Moreno collaborates in the development of NK-CAR cells with Dr Ana Sureda (ICO). He also collaborates with Dr. Marta Alonso (CIMA-University of Navarra) in the development towards a protocol and clinical application for GBM.
Campus IDIBELL
(L’Hospitalet del Llobregat)
Hospital Duran i Reynals, Gran Via 199,
L’Hospitalet del Llobregat,
Barcelona 08908
Tel. +34 93 260 7952
Campus IGTP-IJC
(Badalona)
Campus Can Ruti – IGTP – Building Muntanya,
Rd. Can Ruti, Camí de les escoles s/n,
Badalona, Barcelona 08916
Tel. +34 93 554 3069
Campus IDIBGI
(Girona)
Parc Hospitalari Martí i Julià de Salt, Dr. Castany s/n,
Salt, Girona 17190
Tel. +34 872 987 087
Martínez-Balibrea’s Lab