MSCA-PF: Joint application at the University of Granada. Department of Human Embriology and Anatomy.

Professor Consolación Melguizo Alonso, from the Department of Human Embriology and Anatomy at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) in 2022 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (for more information about the 2022 call, please consult: http://sl.ugr.es/0cmA).

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR) was founded in 1531 and is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. With over 60,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and 6,000 members of staff, the UGR offers over 70 undergraduate degrees, 100 master’s degrees (9 of which are international double degrees) and 28 doctoral programmes via its 127 departments and 22 centers. Accordingly, the UGR offers one of the most extensive and diverse ranges of higher education programmes in Spain.

The UGR has been awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the institution’s commitment to continuously improving its human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The UGR is also internationally renowned for its excellence in diverse research fields and ranked among the top Spanish universities in a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, and international funding.

The UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking - Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The 2021 edition of the ARWU places the UGR in 201-300th position in the world and as the second highest ranked university in Spain (http://sl.ugr.es/0cmF), reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research. The UGR stands out in the specialties of Library & Information Science (position 36); Food Science & Technology (39) and Hospitality & Tourism Management (51-75), according to the latest edition of this prestigious ranking by specialties (http://sl.ugr.es/0bSp). A little lower in the ranking, the UGR also stands out in Mathematics (76-100) and Mining & Mineral Engineering (76-100).

Additionally, the UGR has 7 researchers who are at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list (http://sl.ugr.es/0cmD), most of these related to the area of Computer Science. It is also well recognized for its web presence (http://sl.ugr.es/0a6i), being positioned at 54th place in the top 200 Universities in Europe.

Internationally, the University of Granada is firmly committed to its participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the last two Framework Programmes, the UGR has obtained a total of 67 projects, with total funding of 18.029 million euros, and for H2020, 119 projects with a total funding of around 29.233 million euros.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group:

The Research Group "New Therapies Applied to Research in Biomedicine" (CTS 107) is a multidisciplinary group with a a total of 19 basic and clinical researchers (doctors, clinical oncologists, biochemists, nanotechnologists, biologists, pharmacists, biotechnologists and bioinformatics). Our Group has stable relationship with others Biomedicine and Cancer Centers (Switzerland, UK, Italy and Portugal, among others) and pharmaceutical companies (ROCHE-FARMA S.A and ESTEVE S.L.) and has a clear vocation for clinical application of the results to improve the quality of cancer patient life. Our research activity, continuously funded since 1990, is currently focused on three research lines: 1) New strategies for cancer treatment: nanotechnology and gene therapy 2) New biomarkers for cancer detection and 3) Cancer and Nutrition. We has obtained relevant achievements published in high impact journals (see results in web), among which we can highlight some that has been patented: 1) To develop of new nanodrugs with doxorubicin and 5-FU in collaboration with the Hospital Virgen de las Nieves which were patented (WO 2012 / 104461A1 and PCT / ES2014 /070941), 2) to develop for the first time in the world antitumor therapies using the suicide Gef and E genes (WO 2015/011332 A1 and W0 2009/133220; 3) to discover new (RNA and proteins) tumor markers for pancreatic cancer (two international patents, WO 2014/076342 and WO / 2014/198995) and 4) to determine the application of sigma ligands against cancer (patent WO / 2017/21176).

Project description:

Our Project is named INTRANANOCANCER. Its aim is to develop and test biocompatible and implantable platforms to be used as drug delivery systems in patients with breast and colon cancer. Currently, chemotherapeutic actions in cancer patients are seriously limited by the difficulty in increasing the specificity of drugs against tumour cells reducing their toxicity in healthy cells. Could it be developed a drug delivery system able to release a specific molecule into the proximity of tumour cells in a control manner?

This is a collaborative Project between Research Groups from Granada and Malaga and Madrid (Complutense) University and International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (Braga). We have demonstrated that stimuli-responsive hybrid microgels i) can increase and control drug antitumor activity; ii) improve response against cancer stem cells (responsible to drug resistance and cancer recurrence) and iii) may be functionalized against cancer cells including magnetic nucleus.

The candidate could participate in the consortium to 1) develop (using electrospinning) drug-loaded (cytotoxics) stimuli-responsive microgels or hybrid microgels into biodegradable polymeric nanofibers ("nanotissue"); 2) functionalize these systems (folic acid and antibodies against colon and breast cancer); 3) improve their efficiency introducing hybrid microgleswith Fe3O4 and NIR-active Au (hyperthermia); 4) validate these systems in culture cancer cells and immunodeficient and immunocompetent mice and 6) test these system in cancer cells obtained from patients with colon and breast cancer and determine its clinical applicability. The success of this Project would allow to improve the prognosis of these patients and reduce treatment side effects.

Research Area:

• Chemistry (CHE)
• Life Sciences (LIFE)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Consolación Melguizo Alonso (melguizo@ugr.es):

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)