Our group is focused on two main lines of research: autophagy in cancer, and autosis.
Even though our knowledge in autophagy has exponentially grown during the last decades, it has not been successfully translated to the clinic when treating different diseases. This is the case, for example, of cancer, where the dual role of autophagy both preventing tumor formation and supporting cancer cells survival hinders our ability to target autophagy in therapy. Thus, we aim to define the role of autophagy genes in different types of cancer so we can better understand how we should modulate the pathway when treating this pathology.
Also, we are greatly interested in the molecular dissection of autosis, a unique type of autophagy-dependent cell death that is mediated by the interaction of Beclin 1 with the Na+,K+-ATPase pump. We have previously described this special variety of cell demise in pathologies like ischemic injuries, and we are committed to further characterize its relevance in health and disease.