The research group led by Dr. Alberto Muñoz at the IIBM is a pioneer in the study of colorectal cancer using three-dimensional cell cultures, an advanced method that is key to precision medicine
The researchers have generated a biobank of normal and tumor organoids of the colon and rectum derived from biopsies from more than 150 patients with colorectal cancer thanks to the collaboration with hospitals and the generosity of donors in Spain
The news agency SINC (Servicio de Información y Noticias Científicas) has published a report on organoids, three-dimensional cell cultures generated from stem cells, thanks to the collaboration of Jon Gurutz Arrranz, a science journalist who spent three months at the Unidad de Comunicación y Cultura Científica en el Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas Sols-Morreale (IIBM), a joint center of the CSIC and the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). Jon was a beneficiary of the grant: "Ayudas CSIC-Fundación BBVA de Comunicación Científica" of the "Programa de impulso a la Comunicación Científica".
Jon Gurutz Arrranz interviewed Drs. Antonio Barbáchano and Asunción Fernández-Barral from the Colon Cancer: Organoids, Microenvironment and Vitamin D group, led by Drs. Alberto Muñoz, María Jesús Larriba and José Manuel González-Sancho, in order to explain to society what organoids are for, what are the applications of organoids in the laboratory and in the clinic, and the relevance of using organoid culture in personalized medicine.
The IIBM research group is a member of the following groups: CIBERONC, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Cáncer, and to the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Hospital Universitario La Paz (IdiPAZ).
The SINC agency, which publishes scientific news in Spanish on a wide variety of topics, has echoed the relevance of organoids in biomedical research with the publication of a report, which you can read HERE
Light microscopy images of normal and tumor colon organoids derived from patients with colorectal cancer/IIBM.
Asunción Fernández-Barral and Antonio Barbáchano, experts in colon organoid culture/IIBM