Early Career Investigator (ECI) Short-term Scientific Stay Award (S3A)

The Winner:  

Ioanna Angelioudaki, a brilliant young PhD student from Aretaieion University Hospital in Greece, is the proud recipient of the prestigious Short-term Scientific Stay Award (S3A) 2023 winner. She will soon collaborate with Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas (IIBM) “Alberto Sols” in Spain.

The project: 

Pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (pNENs) include distinct rare clinical entities that are challenging to diagnose and treat, the latter being due to the absence of specific symptoms. pNENs are classified as carcinomas (pNECs) or tumours (pNETs); however, their developmental relationship is still under debate. Understanding their carcinogenesis and their metastatic potential, through evaluating the role of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in the initiation and development of pNENs could be crucial for their clinical management. Pancreatic CSCs have been primarily studied in pancreatic adenocarcinomas, in the context of chemoresistance, autophagy, senescence and epithelial to mesenchymal transition, which constitute molecular pathways of interest with respect to the phenotypic heterogeneity and cellular plasticity of pNENs. Thus, applying methods to the study CSCs in pNENs could provide valuable clinically-relevant information to better understand these rare tumours.

Results and outputs

The results will be made available upon the completion of the project.