Maria Escriva CondePhD student

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers globally. Imagine you are a colorectal tumor cell and you make it to the liver where you colonize it and grow without any control, this is metastasis, which happens in about 30-50% of the patients. In the liver you can choose from two types of growth: desmoplastic and replacement. Let’s say you choose desmoplastic; then around the tumor core, where all the tumor cells are, you force to create a shield around you, this is a fibrosis reaction, so three layers appear: healthy tumour, fibrotic area and tumour core. In my project we try to understand how and why this growth pattern is created. For this purpose, we use a technique called In Situ Sequencing which enables you to see in the tissue (In Situ) which genes your cells are expressing (Sequencing). And with that data we can come up with conclusions. Hopefully with our findings we can help to improve the lives of colorectal cancer patients.