Cancer immunotherapy
Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab

DESCRIPTION

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

Ramón Alemany Bonastre

Group leaders

Josep Maria Piulats Rodríguez

Group leaders

Publications

Safety of adoptive therapy with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and high-dose recombinant interleukin-2 in advanced cutaneous melanoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

10 de April de 2025/in Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab/by

Ann Oncol. 2025 Apr 8:S0923-7534(25)00135-8. doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2025.04.001. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) has consistently shown efficacy in advanced melanoma. Its combination with non-myeloablative but lymphodepleting (NMA-LD) chemotherapy and high-dose interleukin-2 (HD-IL-2) inevitably lead to severe treatment-related adverse events. The systematic recording of the observed toxicities, which […]

Tebentafusp, a T cell engager, promotes macrophage reprogramming and in combination with IL-2 overcomes macrophage immunosuppression in cancer

11 de March de 2025/in Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab/by

Nat Commun. 2025 Mar 10;16(1):2374. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-57470-w. ABSTRACT Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common intraocular cancer in adults, with metastatic disease (mUM) occurring in approximately half of the patients. Tebentafusp, an immune-mobilizing monoclonal T cell receptor against cancer (ImmTAC), is a therapeutic shown to improve overall survival (OS) in HLA-A*02:01+ adult patients with mUM. […]

Unraveling the power of NAP-CNB’s machine learning-enhanced tumor neoantigen prediction

11 de March de 2025/in Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab/by

Elife. 2025 Mar 11;13:RP95010. doi: 10.7554/eLife.95010. ABSTRACT In this study, we present a proof-of-concept classical vaccination experiment that validates the in silico identification of tumor neoantigens (TNAs) using a machine learning-based platform called NAP-CNB. Unlike other TNA predictors, NAP-CNB leverages RNA-seq data to consider the relative expression of neoantigens in tumors. Our experiments show the […]

Bladder Preservation with Durvalumab plus Tremelimumab and Concurrent Radiotherapy in Patients with Localized Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer (IMMUNOPRESERVE): A Phase II Spanish Oncology GenitoUrinary Group Trial

17 de February de 2025/in Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab/by

Clin Cancer Res. 2025 Feb 17;31(4):659-666. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-24-2636. ABSTRACT PURPOSE: The combination of radiation and immunotherapy potentiated antitumor activity in preclinical models. The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of a bladder-preserving approach, including dual immune checkpoint blockade and radiotherapy, in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). PATIENTS AND […]

KPC pancreatic cancer cells are a novel immunocompetent murine model supporting human adenovirus replication and tumor oncolysis

29 de January de 2025/in Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab/by

Mol Ther Oncol. 2024 Dec 21;33(1):200928. doi: 10.1016/j.omton.2024.200928. eCollection 2025 Mar 20. ABSTRACT Oncolytic adenoviral therapy is a promising approach for pancreatic cancer treatment. However, the limited capacity of murine cells to produce infectious viral progeny precludes the full evaluation of the virotherapy in a suitable immunocompetent mouse model. Here, we report that the murine […]

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.

Cancer immunotherapy Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab

DESCRIPTION

Ramón Alemany Bonastre

Group leaders

Josep Maria Piulats Rodríguez

Group leaders

Rafael Moreno Olié

Researchers

María Dolores López Robles

Researchers

Gabriel Espinosa Carrasco

Researchers

Marcel Costa García

Researchers

Luís Paul del Carpio Huerta

Researchers

Juan Antonio Marín Jiménez

Young investigators

Laura Moya Borrego

Young investigators

Pau Fiol Mata

Young investigators

Sebastián Ciro Carné Martín

Young investigators

Silvia Torres Manjón

Support staff

Ainhoa Muñoz Metrino

Support staff

Carles Codony Servat

Support staff

CONTACT US

Cancer immunotherapy
Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab