Sandra Ortiz-Cuaran

Sandra Ortiz-Cuaran did a PhD in Molecular Biology (2009-2012) in Lyon, France. During her post-doc in Roman Thomas’lab (UniKoeln, Germany) (2012-2015), she demonstrated that genomic alterations in KRAS, ERBB2 or MET functionally drive resistance to EGFR inhibitors in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). As a Research Associate in the team of Alain Puisieux (2015-2018), at the Cancer Research Center of Lyon (CRCL, France), her work evidenced that CD70 induces ZEB1 and promotes T-cell exhaustion in pulmonary sarcomatoid tumors. She also started an independent line of investigation to assess the mechanisms of resistance to therapy in BRAF-mutant LUAD, using ctDNA profiling. Since 2018 she leads a lung cancer group in the team of Pierre Saintigny (CRCL), as a tenured-research scientist, which focuses on understanding the role of cancer cell plasticity in resistance to therapy in LUAD. In this context, she started the institutional initiative for the generation of LUAD patient-derived organoids. In 2021, she initiated the BOLERO Consortium, gathering European leaders in the biology and clinical management of BRAF-mutant LUAD, to foster the discoveries of treatment strategies to improve the survival of these patients.