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06/11/2026 - Events

La Marató de 3Cat to fund three cancer research projects at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute

Two of the projects will investigate new strategies for early-onset colon and rectal cancer, while the third will advance research into understanding and treating micrometastases in breast cancer. La Marató de 3Cat raised nearly €14.5 million, which will fund around 40 research projects.

Three projects led by researchers at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute (HMRIB) have been selected to receive funding from La Marató de 3Cat. These three initiatives in the field of oncology, led by Lluís Espinosa, Jenniffer Linares and Toni Celià-Terrassa, have been selected for their scientific relevance and potential to advance cancer research. The projects will be supported by funds raised during the 2025 edition of La Marató, which was dedicated to cancer research. In total, donations reached nearly €14.5 million, which will support 38 research projects involving 91 research teams.

Understanding early-onset colorectal cancer

The project led by Lluís Espinosa, coordinator of the Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer and Stem Cells Research Group at HMRIB, will investigate early-onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC) in collaboration with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and University College Dublin, Ireland, to gain a better understanding of its characteristics and potential vulnerabilities. Through the analysis of patient-derived organoids and in vitro models, the researchers aim to redefine this type of tumour as an entity driven by cellular plasticity and guide potential therapeutic strategies. The project will receive nearly €400,000.

Overcoming treatment resistance in early-onset rectal cancer

The HMRIB project, led by Jenniffer Linares, a researcher in the Colorectal Cancer Precision Medicine Research Group at HMRIB, in collaboration with the Biomedical Research Foundation of Salamanca and IIGTP, will investigate how the interaction between the epigenome and the TGF-β protein in cancer-associated fibroblasts within the tumour microenvironment contributes to the development of treatment resistance. Using integrated transcriptomic, epigenomic and proteomic approaches, the researchers will validate biomarkers that are expected to pave the way for new therapies for this type of tumour. This project will receive €400,000 in funding.

Decoding micrometastasis in breast cancer

This project, which will receive nearly €300,000 from La Marató, aims to gain a better understanding of micrometastases in breast cancer, a critical and understudied stage in the spread of tumour cells throughout the patient's body. The team coordinated by Toni Celià-Terrassa, leader of the Cancer Cell States and Metastasis Immunity Research Group at HMRIB, in collaboration with the Josep Carreras Institute, aims to develop an atlas of micrometastases across different organs and models, as well as a set of therapeutic targets and mechanism-based strategies to prevent metastasis by eliminating this precursor stage.

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