The Cuenca Villoro Foundation's 2025 Grant supports a project by the IIS Aragón on high-risk neuroblastoma

Endowed with 50.000 euros, this year's call supports the project led by Ariel Gaspar Ramírez Labrada, from the group Immunotherapy, Inflammation, Infection and Cancer (I3C) from the IIS Aragón, which combines CAR-NK cell immunotherapy and MYC inhibition to improve the treatment of high-risk childhood neuroblastoma

La Cuenca Villoro Foundation has granted his 2025 Aid for Research Projects to a project of Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón) focused on the development of new therapeutic strategies against high-risk neuroblastoma, one of the most common solid tumors in childhood, representing between 6% and 10% of pediatric cancers.

The selected project is led by Ariel Gaspar Ramírez Labrada, group researcher Immunotherapy, Inflammation, Infection and Cancer (I3C) from the IIS Aragón. In low-risk cases, neuroblastoma has survival rates exceeding 90%. However, in patients with high-risk disease, survival drops significantly, falling below 50-60%, partly due to its high metastatic potential and molecular alterations such as oncogene amplification. MYC.

The research proposes combining MYC inhibition with NK (natural killer) cell-based immunotherapyImmune system cells capable of recognizing and eliminating tumor cells. The goal is to enhance their effectiveness through genetic modification to generate CAR-NK cells and combine them with MYC inhibitors, seeking to improve the therapeutic response in preclinical models of high-risk neuroblastoma. This new approach builds on the group's prior experience in cell therapies and the development of advanced immunotherapy tools.

The concession has been formalized within the framework of Biomedical Seminar organized by the Cuenca Villoro Foundation at the Miguel Servet University Hospital, where the results of the project funded in the 2023 call have also been presented.

In that session, Patricia Sancho Andrés, group researcher Metabolism and Tumor Stem Cells of the IIS Aragón, has outlined the progress made thanks to the funding granted two years ago for the project 'Validation of mitochondrial inhibition as a novel therapeutic strategy in advanced preclinical models of medulloblastoma''financed with 50.000 euros for two years.' medulloblastoma It is the most common malignant tumor of the central nervous system in childhood and presents different molecular subgroups with unequal survival rates, with relapse cases being especially worrying, where survival can fall below 20%.

The project developed by Sancho's group has focused on the study of cellular metabolism and, in particular, in the role of the tumor stem cellsA cell subgroup with a high capacity for resistance to treatments and responsible for tumor recurrence. Among the main advances achieved is the development and optimization of more advanced preclinical models, including three-dimensional cultures, organoids and microfluidic-based medulloblastoma-on-a-chip systems, with the aim of more faithfully reproducing the complexity of the tumor and improving the evaluation of new therapeutic strategies before their validation in animal models.

During the event, the scientific director of the IIS Aragón, Daniel Oros LopezHe highlighted the importance of these types of calls for proposals in promoting biomedical research with a translational focus and potential clinical impact. For his part, the president of the Cuenca Villoro Foundation, Gerardo Rodríguez Martínez, recalled that the Foundation, established in 1972 from the legacy of Dr. Fernando Cuenca Villoro (1906–1965)Its main focus remains supporting scientific research. In recent years, the organization has directed its calls for proposals towards... translational oncology, with special attention to the pediatric field, maintaining an annual allocation of 50.000 euros for projects with potential clinical application.

With this new concession, the Cuenca Villoro Foundation reaffirms its commitment to promoting the pediatric oncology research and with support for projects developed at the IIS Aragón aimed at improving the therapeutic approach to high-risk childhood tumors.