Clockwise from top left: Esther Moreno, Marisol Soengas (dean of Academic Affairs) Daniel Matamala, Miguel Xiao and Jaime Aparicio. / Laura M. Lombardía / CNIO.
Four students, selected among 160 candidates will receive training and start their own experiments at the labs of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO).
Jaime Aparicio, Daniel Matamala, Esther Moreno and Miguel Xiao come from universities in Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.
“Durante la carrera te hablan de la gente de este centro y de la investigación del cáncer que se hace aquí. Vivirlo en persona es un sueño”, dice Daniel.
“I want to devote my life to cancer medicine, but also to research. I think medicine and research must communicate with each other”. This is how Miguel Xiao argues his decision to apply for an internship in the International Summer Training Program of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) for students in degrees in life sciences or biomedical-related sciences, who will spend eight weeks –from June 24th to August 16th– at CNIO laboratories.
Xiao will graduate next December in Cell and Molecular Biology at the South Florida University (Tampa, USA). “My parents are Spanish and CNIO is well-known as the best cancer research centre in Spain. I thought of this as a unique opportunity”, he says. After one week at the Topology and DNA Breaks Group, headed by Felipe Cortés, he already values “people’s kindness, the abundance in resources and how much I still have to learn”.
Al mismo grupo ha llegado Esther Moreno, recién graduada en Bioquímica y Ciencias Biomédicas de la Universidad de Valencia. Viene de una estancia Erasmus en el Imperial College de Londres (Reino Unido), y ya se ha matriculado en el Máster en Bioquímica, Biología Molecular y Biomedicina de la Universidad Complutense. Considera su estancia en el CNIO “una oportunidad increíble. Resulta muy gratificante estar rodeada de tanta gente cuyos nombres he ido conociendo durante la carrera”, asegura. Siente especial interés por cómo se regula el ciclo celular en el cáncer y todo lo que tiene que ver con la estructura del ADN y las proteínas.
The same group has also received Esther Moreno, a fresh Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences graduate from the University of Valencia. Just arrived from an Erasmus scholarship at the Imperial College of London (UK), she has already registered for the Master’s Degree in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biomedicine at the Complutense University in Madrid. She considers her stay at CNIO “an incredible opportunity. It is so rewarding to be surrounded by so many people whose names I have got familiar at university”, she acknowledges.
Getting deeper in your area of interest or searching for it
Daniel Matamala an Jaime Aparicio have chosen the Organ Crosstalk in Metabolic Diseases Group, led by Guadalupe Sabio.
When I read they search for the link between cancer and obesity, I found it a very interesting combination, so here I am”, Matamala explains. “At university you learn about the good quality of the cancer research carried out at this centre. The opportunity to do experiments here is virtually a dream”. With a fresh degree in Biomedicine at Francisco de Vitoria University, this young man from Toledo wants to work in cancer research: “I am interested in resistance mechanisms to cancer treatments, so that’s where I would like to start”.
Aparicio, who studies Biomedical Engineering at San Pablo CEU University, has no professional preferences yet. “That’s why I am here, to explore the various areas you can work in after graduation”.
Chosen among 160 applications
This 13th edition of the CNIO’s summer training program received 160 applications from all over the world. This program “is part of our commitment to education and career development, and it helps us to make CNIO research programs known” Marisol Soengas, dean of Academic Affairs at CNIO points out. “Being a very competitive program, the selected students arrive with a very good background, showing their own ideas and vision, and that is very enlightening for us as well”.
The program includes “several seminars and and a design that allows the students to discover all the units, what the CNIO is and why we are among the top ten institutiosn”, Soengas concludes.
About the CNIO
The CNIO is a Spanish public institution dedicated to the research, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, led by Maria A. Blasco. CNIO has obtained accreditation as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence for the third time in a row. It is one of the 10 leading cancer research centres in the world (according to Scimago Institutions Rankings World Report; Nature Index).
