BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Bruno Sainz, a virologist by training, earned his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA (USA) in 2005. His early scientific career focused on viral infections, such as Herpes simplex virus type-1, Ebola Virus, and SARS-CoV. Specifically, his research focused on developing inhibitors of viral entry and understanding and exploiting the innate immune Interferon (IFN) response to combat viral infections (funded by a National Institutes of Health (NIH, USA) NRSA research award). As a postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Research Institute (2005-2006), he developed a more physiologically relevant hepatocyte culture system to study Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection in vitro. The more differentiated hepatocyte system also permitted him, while at the University of Illinois in Chicago (2006-2011), to independently discover that the Niemann-Pick C1-Like 1 (NPC1L1) cholesterol absorption receptor is an HCV entry factor and the clinically-available and FDA-approved NPC1L1 antagonist ezetimibe (Zetia) can potently block HCV uptake in vitro and in mice with human liver grafts. These findings translated into a 2012 Nature Medicine publication, a US patent, invited talks and presentations at international conferences and institutes and several follow-up publications.
As a semi-independent investigator at the CNIO in Spain from 2011-2014, Dr. Sainz changed his research focus and began to study cancer stem cell (CSC) biology in pancreatic cancer. He identified several immune proteins that have powerful pro-CSC properties, including the human cationic antimicrobial protein 18 (hCAP-18)/LL-37 peptide and the Interferon-Stimulated Gene 15 protein (ISG15). The sum of these studies have advanced our understanding of CSC pathobiology. In addition to the contributions described above, his contributions to science and specifically to the CSC field are best exemplified by his numerous publications aimed at dissecting the biological and molecular signatures of CSCs. As an independent Ramón y Cajal investigator at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) from 2014-2020 and now as a Group Leader at the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas "Alberto Sols" CSIC-UAM, his laboratory, in collaboration with other groups, has discovered new CSCs biomarkers. One of these markers, known as autofluorescence, is the result of riboflavin accumulation in ABCG2-coated intracellular vesicles exclusively found in CSCs. Using this marker, and others discovered since (e.g., ANTXR1, CD47, etc), his laboratory has learned that CSCs are distinct from their non-CSC counterparts at the epigenetic level (e.g. genome methylation and miRNA profiles), and these differences in methylation and miRNA expression are necessary for the maintenance of these cells. In addition, his laboratory is studying the metabolic differences between CSCs and non-CSCs. While non-CSCs meet their energy requirements via glycolysis, CSCs depend on mitochondrial respiration (i.e. oxidative phosphorylation) to survive. Thus, mitochondrial respiration represents an Achilles' heel of CSCs, and his group is exploiting new experimental compounds (IGN111) and targeting specific genes (e.g. ISG15) in order to alter CSC metabolic requirements. The accomplishments and research of the Sainz Lab have resulted in more than 100 publications, several awarded US (Cancer Research Institute, Concern Foundation), Spanish (ISCIII, AECC, ACANPAN, Beca FERO) and European (EURO-NanoMed) grants, 3 patent applications, numerous invited talks and presentations, editorial affiliations and international recognition. Dr. Sainz has a broad background in immunology, microbiology and oncology, with specific expertise in pancreatic cancer, small animal models of cancer and drug discovery.