Between the softball diamond and the cancer research laboratory

Beatriz Parejo Alonso (Barcelona, ​​1987) walks across the Singer-songwriters bridge, in the Parque Grande José Antonio Labordeta in Zaragoza. She works at the nearby Miguel Servet Hospital, as she reveals by the identification hanging from her blouse. Inside the backpack she carries, she carries her folded gown, in which she keeps the pipette, a tool she uses daily to research pancreatic cancer. From the side she shows a bat and next to the laboratory supplies hides a glove that hugs a ball. She is also an athlete: she belongs to the Spanish Softball Team, a sport that has similarities with baseball. The little noise that she insists on every step is her medals, European achievements translated into metal jewelry. Both, both the sport and the type of cancer, are "very unknown", she considers that in that they are similar.

This Catalan, who has lived in the Aragonese capital for three years, lives between the diamond - the field where it is played - and the laboratory - in which she tries to polish the sharpest angles of this disease. 90% of pancreatic cancer patients die within a year of being diagnosed with the pathology, she recalls. "It is a very aggressive cancer that presents non-specific symptoms in early stages. In fact, when it is developing it does not manifest itself, so it cannot be diagnosed," explains Parejo Alonso. The young scientist is part of a research group at the Health Research Institute of Aragon (ISS Aragón), led by Dr. Patricia Sancho and financed by the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) and Worldwide Cancer Research.

"We need to make pancreatic cancer visible so that people become aware that it is a cancer associated with both genetic mutations and environmental factors and that it is occurring more and more in the population," adds Beatriz. "Research is needed to find more effective therapies." effective". However, this investigation has an expiration date at the moment, since the future of 25% of the team is up in the air.

- Now my contract is ending and I am involved in a project, which is part of my doctoral thesis, which has discovered that there are subpopulations of pancreatic cancer cells that are more aggressive. These are the ones that resist chemotherapy, those that form metastases and those that cause recurrences, that is, after treatment the tumor, even if it has shrunk or disappeared, grows again due to these cells. So, we have seen that these units have special metabolic characteristics compared to the others in the tumor: they accumulate fat inside, which they use as a food source when they want to migrate to another organ.

Beatriz regrets that, if her contract is not extended, the investigation will be "paralyzed." They have found funds that subsidize materials, such as reagents, but not personnel to carry out experiments, analyze statistics and continue with the progress made.

Our strategy is to test drugs, which are already approved for clinical use for other diseases, thereby saving many years in verifying their safety in people. We are seeing that some work. In this way, we can block two things: that the aggressive cells incorporate fat or that they eat it but that the use is blocked and that the cell dies due to an energy failure.

On the Precipita platform, dependent on the Ministry of Science and Innovation that allows crowdfunding campaigns to be promoted, they have found hope that runs out in a month. 21.500 euros is their goal, of which they have already achieved a part thanks to altruistic collaborations and initiatives. Like the donation from the Catalan Softball Federation that donated gifts that they have raffled, from Tolosana or the 'merchandising' that they are going to sell, such as masks or mask holders.