Carlos Pérez González awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant

A specialist in organoid development, creating tumour avatars that make it possible to observe cancer progression and mechanisms of treatment resistance at close range, Carlos Pérez González has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). The young researcher is joining the Tumour Cell Dynamics unit (U1279), led by Professor Guillaume Montagnac at Gustave Roussy, to conduct the EvoSelf project. The project aims to investigate the diversity observed among tumour cells, which is considered a factor in cancer progression and aggressiveness.

ERC Starting Grants support promising early-career researchers who are ready to develop an independent research programme. Open to all fields of research, they fund frontier research projects selected for their excellence and enable grant holders to build a team at a host institution located in an EU Member State or associated country.

Understanding how tumours self-organise

Within a tumour, not all cells look or behave in the same way. Some multiply rapidly, others resist treatment, while others acquire the ability to invade neighbouring tissues and form metastases. This diversity, known as tumour heterogeneity, plays a major role in disease progression, treatment resistance and relapse.

Until now, researchers have mainly explained it through the accumulation of genetic mutations or the influence of the tumour environment. However, Carlos Pérez González's work suggests that another mechanism could play an essential role: the ability of tumour cells to organise collectively and communicate with one another, through both biochemical signals and mechanical forces.

The EvoSelf project will therefore study cancer as a constantly evolving tissue capable of generating its own organisation. Its ambition is to understand how this collective dynamic contributes to the emergence of more aggressive cells, metastatic spread and treatment resistance.

Using organoids to decipher cancer evolution

To address these questions, Carlos Pérez González will use patient-derived organoids. These three-dimensional models, grown in the laboratory from tumour cells, reproduce some of the essential characteristics of tumours and make it possible to observe how they evolve. By combining bioengineering, quantitative imaging, mechanical force measurements and large-scale molecular analyses, his team will seek to identify the biological factors that shape cancer behaviour.

The project will investigate, in particular, how mutations arising during tumour progression gradually disrupt the normal organisation of tissues, promoting invasion and the formation of metastases. The researchers will also examine whether common principles of self-organisation exist across different patients despite the considerable diversity of tumours. Finally, EvoSelf will compare several cancer types, including colorectal and pancreatic cancers, to determine whether similar mechanisms govern their evolution.

“By revealing the mechanisms that enable tumours to organise and evolve, this project could transform our understanding of tumour heterogeneity and cancer-cell plasticity,” explains Carlos Pérez González.

Ultimately, this work could pave the way for new approaches to better predict cancer evolution and identify new therapeutic strategies targeting the collective mechanisms that drive its progression.

Grant Agreement number : 101303119