Irene Casanova
Education
- 2015- PhD in biomedicine
- 2011- Master in biochemistry, biomedicine and molecular biology
- 2010- Bachelor in Biotechnology
Working experience
- Senior Investigator at Prostate Cancer Translational Research Group, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (July 2024– ongoing)
- Research associate at Prostate Cancer Translational Research Group, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology. January 2023 – July 2024
- Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona. October 2019-January 2023.
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York. April 2016-September 2019
- Phd Student, Valencian Oncology Institute and Principe Felipe Research Institute, Valencia. September 2011- January 2016.
- S Student, Neuroscience Institute, Autonomous University Of Barcelona. September 2010- August 2011.
- Research Assistant, Max Delbrück Centre For Molecular Medicine, Berlin. September 2009- June 2010.
Awards and honours
- 2024: EACR-Astrazeneca Fellow
- 2020: La Caixa Junior Leader Fellow
- 2020: Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow
- 2017: DoD CDMRP Prostate Cancer Early Investigator Award
- 2011: PFIS Postdoctoral Fellow
- 2015: PhD Suma Cum Laude
- 2011: Honors qualification in the M.S Thesis
- 2010: Honors qualification in the B.S Thesis
Research Support:
Research support from competitive calls:
- EACR-Astrazeneca Postdoctoral Fellowship. 2024-2027. “A novel liquid biopsy assay using circulating tumor extracellular vesicles to monitor prostate cancer tumor evolution and emergence of drug resistance”. Role: PI. Supervisor: Joaquin Mateo.
- Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship. European Comision. 2020 (Awarded but rejected for incompatibility)
- La Caixa Junior Leader Postdoctoral Fellowship. Fundacion La Caixa, Spain. 2020-2024. “Integrated analysis of blood circulating tumor signatures to monitor genomic evolution and therapy responses in advanced Prostate Cancer”. Role: PI. Supervisor: Joaquin Mateo.
- Health Department, Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain. 2019-2021. “New combined liquid biopsy analysis to monitor tumor genomic evolution in response to therapy in Prostate Cancer”. Role: PI. Supervisor: Joaquin Mateo.
- Department of Defense (DoD)-Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) Early Investigator Research Award. 2017-2019. “Nuclear-Mitochondrial DNA Interplay During Prostate Cancer Clonal Evolution”. Role: PI. Co-mentor PI: Lloyd Trotman
- SOGUG research grant. SOGUG group. 2015-2018. “PRostate cancer biOtypes towards a personalized Medicine: targeting the Igf1r pathway using polymer therapeutics (PROMIse)”. Role: Collaborator researcher. PI: Miguel Ángel Climent
- H2020 project LEIT-ICT – ICT 26– 2014.a, European Comision. 2015-2018. “Self-Amplified PHotonic biosensing platform for microRNA-based EarLY diagnosis of diseases (SAPHELY)”. Role: Collaborator researcher. PI: Jaime García Rupérez
- ACOMP 2012/029. Conselleria de Educación, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain.2012 . “Evaluation of cancer specific biomarkers for prostate cancer diagnosis in the context of an early diagnosis screening programme”. Role: Collaborator researcher. PI: Jose Antonio López-Guerrero.
- PFIS PI10/01206. Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain.2011-2013. “Evaluation of cancer specific biomarkers for prostate cancer diagnosis in the context of an early diagnosis screening programme”. Role: Collaborator researcher. PI: Jose Antonio López-Guerrero.
Research Support from non-competitive grants and agreements:
- Amgen-VHIO Pre-clinical collaboration. 2023-2025. “Evaluation of STEAP-1 expression in metastatic hormone-sensitive vs castration-resistant prostate cancer tissue and liquid biopsies”. Role: Senior Postdoctoral Researcher. PI: Joaquin Mateo.
- Astrazeneca Partners of choice. 2022-2025. “Multimodal assessment of prostate cancer temporal and spatial heterogeneity in response to systemic therapy.” Role: Senior Postdoctoral Researcher. PI: Joaquin Mateo.
Other Experience and Professional Memberships
03/2020-ongoing NIH Circulating Nucleic Acid/Liquid Biopsy SIG member
09/2021-ongoing AACR member
09/2020-09/2021 ESMO member
01/2020-10/2022 URONCOMOL
03/2019-ongoing EACR member
08/2016 – 10/2019 Women in Science and Engineering at CSHL
09/2016 – 10/2019 Director of Education Program in the Spanish Association of Scientists in US (ECUSA)
Supervising and mentoring activities
- November 2023- ongoing Co-direction PhD student (Youhao Chen); VHIO (Barcelona)
- October 2023- ongoing Co-direction PhD student (Roma Sunders); VHIO (Barcelona)
- October 2022- March 2024 Co-direction Master student (Elena Endrizzi); VHIO (Barcelona)
- April 2022- ongoing Supervision of Research technician (Laura Agúndez); VHIO (Barcelona)
- March 2021- March 2022 Supervision of Research technician (Lucila González); VHIO (Barcelona)
- April 2016- October 2019 Supervision of graduate students (Mathew Lee, Manojit Swamynathan); Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, US
- April 2016- October 2019 Supervision of mentors and mentoring of high school students under the ECUSA schools program (in collaboration with the Spanish Consulate of New York), New York, US
- February 2019-June 201 Supervision of master student (Abhay Kanodia); Stony Brook University/Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, US
- June 2018- August 2018 Mentoring undergraduate students (Chimsom Agbim); Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, US
- September 2013- June 2014 Supervision of master student (Maria Garcia Flores); Valencian Oncology Institute, Valencia, Spain
Selected publications
- Casanova-Salas I, Córdoba-Terreros S, Aguilar D, Agúndez L, Brandariz J, Herranz N, González M, Morales-Barrera, Sierra A, Soriano-Navarro M, Cresta P, Simonetti S, Rodrigues G, Arce-Gallego S, …, Mateo J. Circulating tumor extracellular vesicles to monitor metastatic prostate cancer genomics and transcriptomic evolution. Cancer Cell. 2024 Jul 8;42(7):1301-1312.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2024.06.003. PMID: 38981440.
- Casanova-Salas I, Athie A, Boutros PC, Del Re M, Miyamoto DT, Pienta KJ, Posadas EM, Sowalsky AG, Stenzl A, Wyatt AW, Mateo J. Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Blood-based Liquid Biopsies to Inform Clinical Decision-making in Prostate Cancer. Eur Urol. 2021 Jan 7:S0302-2838(20)31023-X. doi: 10.1016/j.eururo.2020.12.037.
- Garcia-Ruiz A, Macarro C, Zacchi F, Morales-Barrera R, Grussu F, Casanova-Salas I, Sanguedolce F, Gonzalez M, Cresta-Morgado P, de Albert M, Garcia-Bennett J, Marmolejo D, Planas J, Roche S, Mast R, Zatse C, Piulats JM, Herrera-Imbroda B, Regis L, Agundez L, Olmos D, Calvo N, Escobar M, Carles J, Mateo J, Perez-Lopez R. Whole-body Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a Treatment Response Biomarker in Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer with Bone Metastases: The iPROMET Clinical Trial. Eur Urol. 2024 Mar 14:S0302-2838(24)02133-X. doi: 10.1016/j.eururo.2024.02.016.
- Zurita AJ, Graf RP, Villacampa G, Raskina K, Sokol E, Jin D, Antonarakis ES, Li G, Huang RSP, Casanova-Salas I, Vivancos A, Carles J, Ross JS, Schrock AB, Oxnard GR, Mateo J. Genomic Biomarkers and Genome-Wide Loss-of-Heterozygosity Scores in Metastatic Prostate Cancer Following Progression on Androgen-Targeting Therapies. JCO Precis Oncol. 2022 Jul;6:e2200195. doi: 10.1200/PO.22.00195.
- Rodrigues, G., Hoshino, A., Kenific, C. M., Matei, I. R., Steiner, L., Freitas, D., Kim, H. S., Oxley, P. R., Scandariato, I., Casanova-Salas, I., Dai, J., Badwe, C. R., Gril, B., Tešić Mark, M., Dill, B. D., Molina, H., Zhang, H., Benito-Martin, A., Bojmar, L., Ararso, Y., … Lyden, D. Tumour exosomal CEMIP protein promotes cancer cell colonization in brain metastasis. Nat Cell Biol. 2019;21(11):1403-1412.
- Naguib A, Mathew G, Reczek CR, Watrud K, Ambrico A, Herzka T, Casanova-Salas I, Lee M, El-Amine N, Zheng W, Di Francesco ME, Marszalek JR, Pappin DJ, Chandel NS, Trotman LC. Mitochondrial complex I inhibitors expose a vulnerability for selective killing of Pten-null cells. Cell Reports. 2018. Apr 3;23(1):58-67. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2018.03.032. PubMed PMID: 29617673; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6003704.
- Nowak DG, Katsenelson KC, Watrud KE, Chen M, Mathew G, D’Andrea VD, Lee MF, Swamynathan MM, Casanova-Salas I, Jibilian MC, Buckholtz CL, Ambrico AJ, Pan CH, Wilkinson JE, Newton AC, Trotman LC. The PHLPP2 phosphatase is a druggable driver of prostate cancer progression. J Cell Biol. 2019 Jun 3;218(6):1943-1957. doi:10.1083/jcb.201902048. Epub 2019 May 15. PubMed PMID: 31092557; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6548123.
- Mancarella C*, Casanova-Salas I*, Calatrava A, García-Flores M, Garofalo C, Grilli A, Rubio-Briones J, Scotlandi K, López-Guerrero JA. Insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor affects the survival of primary prostate cancer patients depending on TMPRSS2-ERG status. BMC Cancer. 2017 May 25;17(1):367. doi:10.1186/s12885-017-3356-8.
- Mancarella C, Casanova-Salas I, Calatrava A, Ventura S, Garofalo C, Rubio-Briones J, Magistroni V, Gambacorti-Passerini C, Manara MC, Lopez-Guerrero JA, Scotlandi K. TMPRSS2-ERG regulates IGF-1R expression in prostate cancer cells and affects sensitivity to anti-IGF-1R agents. Oncotarget. 2015 Mar 27. PubMed PMID: 25906745.
- Casanova-Salas I, Masiá E, Armiñán A, Calatrava A, Mancarella C, Rubio-Briones J, Scotlandi K, Vicent MJ, López-Guerrero JA. miR-187 targets the androgen-regulated gene ALDH1A3 in prostate cancer. PLoS One. 2015 May 13;10(5):e0125576.
- García-Flores M*, Casanova-Salas I*, Rubio-Briones J, Calatrava A, Domínguez-Escrig J, Rubio L, Ramírez-Backhaus M, Fernández-Serra A, García-Casado Z, López-Guerrero JA. Clinico-pathological significance of the molecular alterations of the SPOP gene in prostate cancer. Eur J Cancer. 2014 Nov;50(17):2994-3002. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2014.08.009.
- Casanova-Salas I, Rubio-Briones J, Calatrava A, Mancarella C, Masiá E, Casanova J, Fernández-Serra A, Rubio L, Ramírez-Backhaus M, Armiñán A, Domínguez-Escrig J, Martínez F,García-Casado Z, Scotlandi K, Vicent MJ, López-Guerrero JA. Identification of miR-187 and miR-182 as biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis in prostate cancer patients treated with radical prostatectomy. J Urol. 2014 Feb 8. pii: S0022-5347(14)00232-8.
