Pancreatic cancer laboratory
Basic/translational research
Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research
·Barcelona ·

Our line of research focuses on gaining a better understanding of the heterogeneity that exists in pancreatic cancer tumors from different patients. Understanding how different tumor cell identities are regulated and how they define complex interactions with the tumor microenvironment are part of the questions our research aims to answer. For this purpose, we use state-of-the art omics analyses (transcriptomics and epigenetics), which we complement with functional studies using primary in vitro and in vivo models.

Main publications in pancreatic cancer:

  1. Aggressive PDACs Show Hypomethylation of Repetitive Elements and the Execution of an Intrinsic IFN Program Linked to a Ductal Cell of Origin. Espinet E#, Gu Z, Imbusch CD, Giese NA, Büscher M, Safavi M, Weisenburger S, Klein C, Vogel V, Falcone M, Insua-Rodriguez J, Reitberger M, Thiel V, Kossi SO, Muckenhuber A, Sarai K, Lee AYL, Backx E, Zarei S, Gaida MM, Rodriguez-Paredes M, Donato E, Yen HY, Eils R, Schlesner M, Pfarr N, Hackert T, Plass C, Brors B, Steiger K, Weichenhan D, Arda HE, Rooman I, Kopp JL, Strobel O, Weichert W, Sprick MR, Trumpp A#. #Correspondence. Cancer Discovery. 2021 Mar;11(3):638-659. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-20-1202. Epub 2020 Oct 15. PMID: 33060108
  2. Mechanisms of PDAC subtype heterogeneity and therapy response. Espinet E, Klein L, Puré E, Singh SK. Trends Cancer. 2022 Dec;8(12):1060-1071. doi: 10.1016/j.trecan.2022.08.005. Epub 2022 Sep 15.PMID: 36117109 
  3. TNF-α-producing macrophages determine subtype identity and prognosis via AP1 enhancer reprogramming in pancreatic cancer. Tu M*, Klein L*, Espinet E, Georgomanolis T, Wegwitz F, Li X, Urbach L, Danieli-Mackay A, Küffer S, Bojarczuk K, Mizi A, Günesdogan U, Chapuy B, Gu Z, Neesse A, Kishore U, Ströbel P, Hessmann E, Hahn SA, Trumpp A, Papantonis A, Ellenrieder V, Singh SK. Nature Cancer. 2021 Nov;2(11):1185-1203. doi: 10.1038/s43018-021-00258-w. Epub 2021 Nov 15. PMID: 35122059
Elisa Espinet

Principal Investigator

Group members

  • Elisa Espinet 
  • Irene Peñuelas
  • Sandra García-Mulero 
  • Martín Jiménez-Arriola
  • Ariel Acuña-Pincay 
  • Nicolás Peláez-Llaneza
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