Hosting offer for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) 2024 call

General information of the group

The research group is constituted by a disciplinary group of clinical and basic researchers from the Surgery, Gastroenterology and Radiology Departments of the Hospital University Virgen del Rocío, and the laboratory 209 of the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS). The group is integrated in the scientific program “Hepatic, digestive and inflammatory disease" in the IBiS. The postdoctoral researcher will be integrated in the basic staff of the laboratory 209 headed by the Chief of the Surgery Department Dr. Francisco J Padillo, and co-headed by Dr. Jordi Muntané acting as the tutor of the present postdoctoral researcher. The basis staff of the laboratory 209 is constituted by two predoctoral investigators, one technician, one foreign Erasmus graduate student and two students in scientific formation. The members have a long scientific track in the field of oxidative and nitrosative stress leading to liver injury and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Biosketch of the tutor of the postdoctoral researcher: Jordi Muntané Relat (jmuntane-ibis@us.es)

PROFESSIONAL CATEGORY: Associate Professor (Dept Medical Physiology and Biophysics, University of Seville); Co-Responsible Investigator Lab 209 (Institute of Biomedicine of Seville); ACCREDITATION PROFESSOR OF UNIVERSITY: Reference: 2022-002279 (December 12, 2022); PROJECTS, Europeans: 10 (Team Member); Nationals: 10 (IP) and 12 (Team Member); Regional: 10 (IP) and 18 (Team Member); Total awarded as Principal Investigator: 6,500,000 pts, 1,693,607.57 Euros; Total awarded as Research Team Member: 41,027,000 pts, 321,960,284.4 Euros. PUBLICATIONS, Total Number: 194; Number of publications in PubMed/Total: 181/194 (93.30%); h-index: 42; Citations: 6114; Cumulative Impact Factor: 686,635; First decile: 26 (15.29%); First quartile (not including 1st decile): 64 (37.65%); Second quartile: 40 (23.53%); Third quartile: 29 (17.06%); Fourth quartile: 11 (6.47%); Book chapters: 5; Clinical Guide: 2; CONGRESSES, National: 176; International: 145; Oral Communications: 118; Poster communications: 203. RESEARCH STAYS IN FOREIGN CENTERS: 11 (41 months and 12 days); PRIVATE CONTRACTS: 8 as PI (1,318,249.47 Euros Euros) and 3 as Team Member (300,000 pts, 114,350 Euros); Clinical Trials: 4; PATENTS: 5; INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REGISTRY: 1; DOCTORAL THESES: 19; TFG and TFM: 21; COMMITTEES, Scientific Management: SFRR-Europe (Member of the Board of Directors 7/9/2012-8/6/2016); International Nitric Oxide Society (President, 10/8/2018-14/3/2023); Local CEI Member (6/3/2009-7/31/2011) and Regional (2010-2011); Spanish Group for Research on Free Radicals (Secretary 5/13/2010-6/24/2015 and President 6/25/2015-); Organization of R+D+i Activities National/International: 30; RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS: 31; Ph COMMITTEES: 49; CONFERENCES: 49. TEACHING AGREEMENT WITH FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES: 1; MEMBER OF BIOTECH: Tergum SL with 8% of the shareholding (2015); RESEARCH AWARDS: National (7) and International (1); HUMAN RESOURCES: 13; RADIO, PRESS, WEB AND TV: 20 articles; NETWORKS, National (7) and International (3); EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: 4; REVIEWER: 100.

Summary of research project

The scientific project involved the identification of critical factors involved in HCC caused by metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). HCC is the most common form of primary liver cancer being globally recognized as the fourth cause of cancer-related death that will lead more than a million annual deaths in 2030. The prevalence of MASLD is predicted to increase up to 56% in most the European countries, USA and China within the next 10 years which will dramatically impact HCC cases in the following years. The progression of the disease to proinflammatory state or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) leading to HCC has unique molecular and immune traits compared with other etiologies. The major actual concern is to establish reliable biomarkers that allow clinicians and patients to prevail the progression of the disease to HCC. The project is focused on the identification, characterization and validation of reliable biomarkers in extracellular vesicles (EVs) useful to develop an algorithm addressed to all stakeholders in order to prevail the prognosis of malignancy in patients with liver advanced fibrosis. The molecular characterization includes cell-cell interactions and extracellular matrix pattern of the microenvironment, DNA mutations, epigenetic signature including DNA modifications and lncRNA/miRNA/circRNA signature, and metabolic profiles. Different in vitro and in vivo models will be developed for the identification of the functional relevance of EVs. The selected relevant biomarkers will be integrated in a signaling networking pattern to potential identified upstream markers, and integrated all together into artificial intelligence (AI) tools useful for patients, health system and facultative for the best rational, economic and clinical making decisions.