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21/11/2025 - Institutional news

The ”la Caixa” Foundation awards a grant of almost one million euros to a project led by Dr Alexandre Calon

Within the Health Research Call, it is one of 34 biomedical research projects selected from more than 700 proposals submitted in this edition.

A project aimed at advancing knowledge of the tumour microenvironment in colon and rectal cancer in order to identify new therapeutic strategies, led by Dr Alexandre Calon, coordinator of the Translational Research Group in Tumour Microenvironment at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute, is one of those selected in the latest Health Research Call of the "la Caixa" Foundation. The proposal will receive nearly one million euros to seek solutions to the challenge of treatment resistance in this type of tumour.

The project will analyse the tumour environment, specifically fibroblasts, and their role in protecting cancer cells. To do so, the researchers will create a detailed map of tumours before and after treatment, which will be combined with advanced imaging and genetic analyses to show their behaviour and response. Small tumours grown in the laboratory from patient samples will also be used.

The ultimate goal is to develop tools that help doctors choose the most appropriate treatment for each patient and design new, more precise therapies with fewer side effects. Researchers from the University of Oviedo, the Consortium for the Exploitation of the National Centre for Genomic Analysis (CNAG) in Barcelona, and the University of Granada are also taking part in the study.

In total, this edition of the Health Research Call has selected 34 projects from more than 700 proposals submitted. A total of 26 million euros in grants will be distributed. In addition to the study led by the Hospital del Mar Research Institute, other projects will investigate improving the maturation of beta cells for the treatment of diabetes, creating a reliable system to test drugs for spinal cord injuries without the need for animal experimentation, and developing treatments for rare paediatric diseases.

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