Marta Cascante

Marta Cascante

Full professor

ORCID: 0000-0002-2062-4633
Scopus Author ID: 7006946294
Knowledge area: Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular

Director of the research group 'Integrative Systems Biology, Metabolomics and Cancer'-Institute of Biomedicine (IBUB) -Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine-Faculty of Biology-University of Barcelona
ICREA ACADEMIA Award 2010, 2015, 2021-Present
Director of a research team in 'Centro Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre enfermedades hepáticas y digestivas (CIBER)-CIBEREHD-CB17/04/00023'

Research group: IP Grup de Bioquímica Integrativa

Teaching Innovation Groups: Metabolisme al grau de Química (QuiMet)

Contact Information
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine
Facultat de Biologia, Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular; Avda. Diagonal 645, Edifici Nou, pl -2
934021593
martacascante(a)ub.edu

Teaching

Professor of Biochemistry, Enzymology, Clinical Biochemistry, Biophysics, Bioenergetics and Transport (BT), Biotechnological Applications (AB), Computational Systems Biology (BSC). I have contributed to the design of these subjects and I contribute to the updating of those that I am currently teaching (BT, AB, BSC)
Lecturer and Board of Directors, Erasmus Mundus Be in Precision Medicine (BeInPM). International Master sponsored by European Commission
Coordinator of the UB node and professor of the interuniversity master UB-UPF-Bioinformatics for Health Sciences Master
Tutor of students of the Degree of Chemistry.-Program of action tutorial level of Faculty
Supervisor of final Degreeresearch projects (TFG) and of Master thesis (TFM)

Research interests

CANCER THERAPY ¿ Study of the differences in the regulation of energy metabolism of tumor cell lines with respect to non-tumor lines. ¿ Characterization and inhibition of the metabolic reprogramming associated with chemoresistance for its application as a combined therapy against cancer. ¿ Design of antitumor therapies based on the inhibition of different key points of cancer cell metabolism. ¿ Study of the antitumor and antioxidant properties of bioactive polyphenols extracted from by-products of the agri-food and forestry industry. ¿ Identification of new therapeutic targets from functional genomics studies and metabolomics. ¿ Phenotyping of the effect of new chemical compounds with antitumor potential. ¿ Characterization of the metabolic adaptations that accompany processes such as: - Cell differentiation - Cell death - Tumorigenesis - Transformation by oncogenes - Drug treatment - Acquisition of chemo- or immuno- resistance
METABOLOMICS AND FLUXOMICS ¿ Measurement of metabolites by spectrometry, GC/MS and LC/MS in samples of biomedical, biotechnological or industrial interest. ¿ Analysis of the incorporation of 13C in different metabolites in tissue samples, cell pellets or culture medium. ¿ Quantification of intracellular metabolic fluxes from the integration of directed metabolomics and metabolomics data based on the use of tracers using self-owned software. ¿ Construction of genomic-scale metabolic models (GSMMs) specific for a condition or cell line of interest or patient sample, through the integration of metabolomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. ¿ Development and application of software for quantification of metabolic flows integrating different 'omic' and / or clinical data (use of methods based on 'Machine Learning'). ¿ Characterization of the metabolic adaptations that accompany processes such as: - Cell differentiation - Cell death - Tumorigenesis - Transformation by oncogenes - Drug treatment - Acquisition of chemo- or immuno- resistance
Investigación interdisciplinaria en el campo de la Biología de Sistemas que combina la caracterización a nivel molecular de redes de procesos celulares y la integración de la información experimental obtenida en modelos “in silico” que permitan una mejor comprensión de sus mecanismos de control y regulación a nivel molecular y sistemático

Projects

Identificación de los subtipos metabólicos de cáncer colorrectal para el desarrollo de medicina personalizada . 2021 - 2024 . Ref.PID2020-115051RB-I00 . Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) . PI: Marta Cascante Serratosa; Pedro Ramon de Atauri Carulla
Discovery of small molecules to prevent the severe progression of COVID-19 . 2021 - 2022 . Ref.2020PANDE00048 . Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) . PI: Marta Cascante Serratosa
Ajut per incentivar i consolidar la recerca d'excel·lència ja existent a les universitats públiques de Catalunya. Programa ICREA Academia 2021 . 2022 - 2026 . Fundació Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) . PI: Marta Cascante Serratosa
Tuning Tubulin Dynamics and Interactions to Face Neurotoxicity: a Multidisciplinary Approach for Training and Research (TubInTrain) . 2019 - 2023 . Ref.860070 . Unió Europea . PI: Marta Cascante Serratosa; Silvia Marin Martinez
Grup de Bioquímica Integrativa . 2017 - 2021 . Ref.2017SGR1033 . Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) . PI: Marta Cascante Serratosa

Journal Publications

Tarrado-Castellarnau, M.; de Atauri, P.; Tarragó-Celada, J.; Perarnau, J.; Yuneva, M.; Thomson T.M.; Cascante, M. (2017). De novo MYC addiction as an adaptive response of cancer cells to CDK4/6 inhibition. Molecular Systems Biology, 13(10), p. 940 . Institutional Repository . ISSN: 1744-4292
Marín de Mas, I.; Aguilar, E.; Zodda, E.; Balcells, C.; Marin, S.; Dallmann, G.; Thomson, T.M.; Papp, B.; Cascante, M. (2018). Model-driven discovery of long-chain fatty acid metabolic reprogramming in heterogeneous prostate cancer cells. PLoS Computational Biology, 14(1), p. e1005914 . Institutional Repository . ISSN: 1553-734X
Foguet, C.; Jayaraman, A.; Marin, S.; Selivanov, V.A.; Moreno,P.; Messeguer, R.; De Atauri, P; Cascante, M. (2019). p13CMFA: Parsimonious 13C metabolic flux analysis. PLoS Computational Biology, 15(9), p. e1007310 . Institutional Repository . ISSN: 1553-734X
Balcells, C; Foguet, C; Tarragó-Celada, J; de Atauri, P, Marin, S; Cascante, M (2019). Tracing metabolic fluxes using mass spectrometry: stable isotope-resolved metabolomics in health and disease. Trac-Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 120 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2018.12.025 . ISSN: 0165-9936
Lazaro, Ariadna; Balcells, Cristina; Quirante, Josefina; Badia, Josefa; Baldoma, Laura; Ward, Jas S.; Rissanen, Kari; Font-Bardia, Merce; Rodriguez, Laura; Crespo, Margarita; Cascante, Marta (2020). Luminescent Pt-II and Pt-IV Platinacycles with Anticancer Activity Against Multiplatinum-Resistant Metastatic CRC and CRPC Cell Models. Chemistry-A European Journal, 26(9), pp. 1947 - 1952 . Institutional Repository . ISSN: 0947-6539
Tarragó-Celada,Josep; Foguet,Carles; Tarrado-Castellarnau,Míriam ; Marin, Silvia; Hernández-Alias,Xavier; Perarnau, Jordi; Morrish,Fionnuala; Hockenbery, David; Gomis,Roger R.; Ruppin,Eytan; Yuneva,Mariia; Atauri, Pedro de; Cascante,Marta (2021). Cysteine and Folate metabolism are targetable vulnerabilities of metastatic colorectal cancer. Cancers, 13(3), p. 425 . Institutional Repository . ISSN: 2072-6694
de Atauri P.; Tarrado-Castellarnau M.; Tarragó-Celada J.; Foguet C.; Karakitsou E.; Centelles J.J.; Cascante M. (2021). Integrating systemic and molecular levels to infer key drivers sustaining metabolic adaptations. PLoS Computational Biology, 17(7), p. e1009234 . Institutional Repository . ISSN: 1553-734X
Selivanov, V.A.*; Zagubnaya, O.A.; Nartsissov, Y.R.; Cascante, M.* (*: co-corresponding authors) (2021). Unveiling a key role of oxaloacetate-glutamate interaction in regulation of respiration and ROS generation in nonsynaptic brain mitochondria using a kinetic model. PLoS One, 16(8), p. e0255164 . Institutional Repository . ISSN: 1932-6203
Karakitsou, E.; Foguet, C.; Contreras Mostazo, M.G.; Kurrle, N.; Schnütgen, F.; Michaelis, M.; Cinatl, J.; Marin, S.; Cascante, M. (2021). Genome-scale integration of transcriptome and metabolome unveils squalene synthase and dihydrofolate reductase as targets against AML cells resistant to chemotherapy. Computational And Structural Biotechnology Journal, 19, pp. 4059 - 4066 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2021.06.049 . ISSN: 2001-0370
Polat, Ibrahim H.; Tarrado Castellarnau, Míriam Neus; Benito Mauricio, Adrián; Hernández Carro, Claudia; Centelles Serra, Josep Joan; Marin, Silvia; Cascante i Serratosa, Marta (2021). Glutamine modulates expression and function of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase via NRF2 in colon cancer cells. Antioxidants, 10(9), pp. 1 - 16 . Institutional Repository . ISSN: 2076-3921

Others Publications

Hojdaard, L.; Lisboa, P.; Borge, A.I.H.; Adany, R.; Benson, M.; Bove, S.; Cascante, M.; Ciesla, A.; Dario, P.; De Moor, G.; Kieny, M-P.; Klovins, J.; Ladenstein, R.; Larue, C.; Laszlo, M.; Maguire, P.; Marques Alves, P.; Monaco, L.; Mossialos, E.; Olauson, A.; Oresic, M.; Peters, A.; Ross, P.; Saraga, P.; Sedlak, J.; Sheils, O.; Tanner, M.; Thijs, L.; Uusküla, A.; Vuorio, E.; Weiderpass, E. (listed alphabetically). (2016). Advice for 2018/2020 of the Horizon 2020 advisory group for Societal challenge 1, "Health, demographic change and wellbeing" . https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/sc-1-health-demographic-change-and-wellbeing-work-programme-2016-2017-preparation
Yanes, O.; Salek, R.; Marín de Mas, I.; Cascante, M. (2019). Overview of Metabolomics . In Metabolomics: practical guide to design and analysis. . (pp. 1 - 13) . CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group . ISBN: 9781498725262 .
Marín de Mas, I.; Cascante, M. (2019). Metabolic Flux . In Metabolomics: practical guide to design and analysis . (pp. 201 - 234) . CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group . ISBN: 9781498725262 .

Relevant Activities

Member of the 'Societat Catalana de Biologia' and of the ' Sociedad Española de Bioquímica y Biolgia Molecular (SEBBM)'
Funding Member of the Spanish Metabolomics Society (SESMET) and member of the board of directors
Member of the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme in Biotechnology
Awarded with the Narcís Monturiol Medal for Scientific and Technological Merit, awarded in 2015 by the Generalitat de Catalunya
Founding Member (2015) European Association of Systems Medicine (EASyM)