2016_09_21_CIE_posdoc

Before starting his new career at Yale University (USA) within one of the leading groups in lung cancer research , Fernando de Miguel (Biology 08 and Biochemistry 10) explains how he has been forging his degree program to make the international leap.

- How did you get the postdoc at this prestigious campus?
Through persistence and patience. The process of looking for a postdoc can be a bit daunting. In the first place because in many occasions you are not clear about what you want to research after the thesis , and secondly because the skill in the USA is high and in some laboratories Spanish researchers are at a disadvantage. In my case, I have had financial aid from many colleagues from CIMA who have already been there and have not hesitated to help me and put me in contact with laboratories there. This particular opportunity was offered to me by Dr. Silve Vicent, who knows Dr. Politi and knew she was looking for new postdocs. After some Skype interviews and a small "field trip" to several labs on the east coast of the USA, I finally had the good fortune to be able to go there.

- What project postdoc will you develop at Yale University?
The specific project is yet to be finalized. The laboratory I am going to, which is led by Dr. Katerina Politi, studies lung cancer just like we do here. For the past few years they have focused on understanding the mechanisms that lead certain patients to acquire resistance against drugs. In addition, they are experts in animal models for the study of lung carcinomas. They currently have a very interesting and thorough sample collection program in patients who are developing resistance to immunotherapy treatments, which has been the latest "boom" in lung cancer treatment. In principle, my project will be aimed at understanding the genomics of these tumors, and trying to find the mechanisms of resistance using murine (mouse) models.

- What are your expectations for your training in the USA?
Expectations are very high. Nowadays the means and the level of research in the USA are still a step above Europe. Yale University in particular is one of the best universities and there is a lot of research and interaction with other groups, which is essential to do quality science. Also, I happen to be a US citizen by virtue of being born there, so I am eligible for US funding sources that will help me to settle there.

- First you studied biology, then Biochemistry and continued with a Master's Degree at the Center for Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa. Was it already clear to you that you wanted to focus on lung cancer?
Even before I started degree program in Biology, it was clear to me that I wanted to dedicate myself to research. My interest in cancer was forged at the University, when you learn about the molecular mechanisms of cancer. This is something that still fascinates me today. I remember with special affection the classes of Dr. Natalia López Moratalla and Dr. María Jesús López Zabalza, among others. Their courses were mainly responsible for my interest in the molecular biology of cancer.

The approach in lung cancer in particular came after the Master's Degree, for the opportunity offered to me by my directors of thesis , Dr. Ruben Pio and Dr. Luis Montuenga to join their group to perform the thesis . They have been fighting with it for a long time and without a doubt they have been able to train me and encourage me to fight against this subject tumor, which continues to be one of the most deadly in the world.

- What results did you obtain after your doctoral thesis ?
Within the solid tumors and biomarkers program at CIMA I have worked on the identification of alternative splicing events associated with lung cancer. Alternative splicing is a genomic editing process that occurs naturally in the cell, but like so many other processes it is highly altered in tumor cells. As a result, we have published two articles.

- In your experience outside campus, what impression have you had about the quality of the training in Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Navarra?
I have been very fortunate to study at two universities in addition to the University of Navarra. During my fifth year of Biochemistry I was an Erasmus student at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, and the following year I did a Master's Degree at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. All of them are great universities, although without a doubt the one I know best is the UNAV. I think that one of the values that stands out at the University of Navarra is the follow-up at student. In addition, the campus has a level of research B , and that is grade in the academic staff and in the opportunities that you can get after the degree program, both in the School of Sciences and in the CIMA or in the CUN. 

- What is so special about this tumor compared to the rest?
Although it is one of the tumors that causes the most deaths, it is also one of those that receives the least funding for its treatment research, largely due to what is known as the "stigma" of lung cancer. No one today doubts that the main risk factor for developing lung cancer is smoking. The problem is that socially there is the conception that lung cancer is a disease almost "sought after" by the smoker, and therefore avoidable when this is not always the case. For example, our group has a project to study a subject of lung carcinoma that is very frequent in non-smoking women who have a specific mutation. I think that those of us who know a little about this disease have to work to make society more aware of the disease and end this stigmatization. My director of thesis , Rubén Pío, has a very good seminar about this topic in which among other things he explains how when the press publishes the death of celebrities, "lung cancer" is often replaced by "long" or "hard disease", out of embarrassment for the real cause to be known. 

- Do you think that a cure for cancer will finally be achieved or is there still a long battle ahead?
This is a question that friends and family who know what I do keep asking me and to which I have a somewhat pessimistic answer. The problem with cancer is that no two tumors are the same. It is a disease Genetics that in most cases arises from the cell's own natural development . 

To give a simple example, when someone contracts a disease whose cause is well known, if you identify perfectly what agent is causing it, and what treatment kills it, you can give it to all patients equally and the success rate will be close to 100%. This is not the case with cancer. There can be two patients with the same subject lung carcinoma and yet the two tumors can be very different from each other. Even within the same tumor the heterogeneity is extremely high, a consequence of the genetic nature of the disease. All these factors make the tumors very difficult to treat specifically. The current trend is to have a perfect knowledge of the Genetics of each individual tumor and thus be able to treat the patient in a more specific way.

As I say, the advances are there. test is that the mortality fees tends to decrease. However, until we can perfectly control all the mechanisms that cause cancer, we will not put an end to it, and that is a long-term goal deadline .