When Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old woman from Coventry (UK), received the first COVID-19 vaccine, it was just 11 months after the discovery of the virus that caused it and less than 9 months after a pandemic had been declared. It was the 8th of December 2020 and biomedicine was setting an all-time record. By comparison, it took 5 years to develop and approve the Ebola vaccine and 7 years for measles. This unprecedented speed was made possible by a combination of factors, including exceptional funding and global cooperation, but one of these factors made all the difference: RNA technology.

Far from being a one-off solution, this breakthrough has opened the door to a new generation of therapies based on RNA (a key molecule in essential processes such as protein synthesis) that are revolutionising medicine by offering more versatile,

“Clinical trials aren’t only a tool for research but also represent a real possibility of treatment for patients who’ve exhausted many other options”. This is the premise with which Elena Garralda, Director of UITM-CaixaResearch at VHIO, validates each of the new therapies promoted by this research unit.

One example of this is the clinical trial for the European project PragmaTIL, led by VHIO. With the participation of 12 institutions from 6 countries, including “la Caixa” Foundation, this trial has treated the first patient with an innovative immunotherapy. Its aim? To improve the care of people with resistant tumours, reducing the treatment’s toxicity but without it losing any efficacy.

One of the great achievements of modern medicine is undoubtedly organ and tissue transplantation. Not only has it saved hundreds of thousands of lives in recent decades but it has also radically transformed the everyday lives of many people, freeing them from long, invasive and exhausting treatments such as dialysis or the need to be permanently connected to an oxygen machine in cases of advanced lung disease, allowing them to regain their independence and enjoy a full and active life.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 172,000 transplants were performed worldwide in 2023. However, although this figure may be impressive, we are still a long way from meeting the global demand of 2 million transplants per year.

The immune system is one of the great achievements of evolution. It detects and responds to viruses, bacteria, parasites, tumour cells and even attacks by inert objects. Similarly, our efforts to understand and decipher how our own immune system works is also one of humanity’s great achievements. A clear example of this is the fact that, in the last 50 years alone, vaccines have saved 154 million lives according to the World Health Organisation.

Today immunology, the branch of biomedical science that studies the immune system, is going much further. It’s redefining biomedicine, paving the way for new advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of all kinds of diseases, from cancer to neurological disorders.

More than 860 000 new cases of liver cancer are diagnosed worldwide each year and hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common form, as well as one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality. This is a particularly complex disease as it occurs in four distinct subtypes, each with its own genetic alterations and molecular characteristics.

Until now, research has come up against a considerable hurdle: the lack of experimental models capable of faithfully reproducing such complexity. This limitation significantly hinders the development of new treatments as it’s not possible to predict how different patients will respond to drugs, thereby impeding progress towards more personalised therapies.

Now, a promising solution has been offered by new study,