Studying the impact of a non-canonical CRAF-PLK1 signalling pathway in desmoplasia and pancreatic cancer progression

Ainhoa is a cancer cell biologist who works on understanding how tumour and stromal cells regulate vital processes, such as apoptosis, proliferation and migration, to survive and promote tumour progression. It has recently become evident that in carcinomas the non-malignant stromal cells play a key role in tumour progression and resistance to therapy. Thus, Ainhoa is currently focusing on understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating the proliferation and survival of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). A better understanding of how the proliferation of CAFs is regulated could help improve current anticancer therapies. Therefore, the overall goal of Ainhoa's research programme is to identify novel key regulators necessary for the aberrant proliferation of CAFs and to investigate the therapeutic benefits of inhibiting proliferation of CAFs in cancer.