Education & Training

VHIO Academy VHIO – CaixaResearch Scientific Seminars Series Benchstorming Seminars Ad-Hoc Courses, Workshops and Observerships

VHIO Academy

Area Summary

Since its establishment in 2021, VHIO Academy has championed interdisciplinarity, scientific creativity, collaboration, communication, and mentoring. It has played a key role in the globalization and diversification of VHIO’s workforce, equipping early-career investigators with essential skills, and strengthening interactions between biomedical researchers and the healthcare community. These efforts are critical for fostering sustainable collaborations, ensuring collective responsibility, and driving impactful oncology research.

At VHIO Academy, we support scientific career progression and foster a thriving workplace to drive high-quality biomedical research and innovation. Rooted in VHIO’s commitment to ethics, integrity, transparency, and patient-centricity, VHIO Academy provides a solid foundation for career development at all stages, cultivating a research culture that builds trust and enhances the quality, impact, and reach of our findings.

Through developing strategic projects aimed at strengthening the capabilities of our scientific and medical workforce, professional development initiatives to solidify biomedical research careers, and inclusive practices that create a dynamic and supportive environment, VHIO Academy nurtures responsible scientific advancements that contribute to the fight against cancer.

Strategic goals

Develop and coordinate cancer research-focused training programs.
Enhance senior researchers’ mentoring and leadership skills to support and promote early career researchers’ careers.
Foster a healthy and inclusive work environment where everyone can thrive professionally.
Launch and manage institutional academic programs to attract talented professionals in oncology and cancer research.
Establish and consolidate collaborations with Comprehensive Cancer Centers (CCCs) and international cancer research consortia to further develop joint educational activities and expand professional networks.
Facilitate the mobility of researchers and clinicians at the international level.
Reinforce internal & external scientific communication and dissemination of cancer research findings.

Highlights

We obtained an EU HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-COFUND grant under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Program. Through VHIO’s new International Postdoctoral Program for Translational Research (VIDA), we recruited 4 postdoctoral researchers in the first call to conduct interdisciplinary cancer research. These fellowships offer researchers a chance to strengthen their expertise and connect with VIDA’s 16 partner organizations.
VHIO Academy has obtained a Redes y Gestores Grant from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación – AEI (State Research Agency) to consolidate and strengthen international talent attraction.
We are consultative partners for the INTERACT – 100 Programme, an ambitious EU project promoting effective communication between cancer care professionals from different specialties to enhance patient care.
Launch of the VHIO competitive call for Computational Master’s Students: Computational Oncology Award.
To further strengthen VHIO’s International PhD Program, we have set up Thesis Advisory Committees (TACs).
As part of our Postdoctoral Program we have introduced community and networking actions/joint actions.
We have provided tailored support for internal candidates applying for competitive grants (mock interviews).
We have expanded the Induction training for VHIO first-year PhD students.

Horizons

The development and launch of new initiatives including:

Clinical Fellows program (training, career development, and fellowships opportunities)
Mentoring and leadership skills program for senior investigators.
Career Service for VHIO Academy Fellows.
Scientific Visitors Program.

As already highlighted, the VHIO Academy has achieved several highlights including the launch of international Academic Programs (Bachelor, Master, PhD calls), the implementation and consolidation of a structured International PhD Program (+100 PhD students) adhering to the principles of interdisciplinarity and internationality, early independence and scientific creativity, excellence in science and technology, collaboration, and mentoring, and the deployment of an Advanced Training Program.

In 2025, the VHIO Academy coordinated 7 Academic Programs:

BBVA Foundation International Secondments Program
BBVA Foundation – Severo Ochoa VHIO International Summer Internship Program
BBVA Foundation – Severo Ochoa VHIO International Masters Internship Program
VHIO International PhD Program
Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera – VHIO MD-PhD Fellowship
Computational Oncology Award Program
VHIO VIDA Postdoctoral COFUND Programme

Throughout the year the VHIO Academy coordinated a total of 17 VHIO-Caixa Research Scientific Seminars, 13 VHIO Benchstorming Seminars, 27 scientific trainings for different VHIO communities, supported the PhD and Postdoc Councils in coordinating the PhD and Postdoc Days, celebrated 14 PhD defenses, and was part of the organization committee for the Cancer Core Europe (CCE) Summer School 2025, 5-10 October, Algarve, Portugal.

VHIO – CaixaResearch Scientific Seminars Series

Coordinated by the VHIO Academy, the VHIO – CaixaResearch Scientific Seminars Series is supported by the ”La Caixa” Foundation. This annual educational program welcomes internationally renowned researchers and clinical investigators to VHIO to share and discuss their latest research findings and to meet with VHIO investigators. Established in 2019, these seminars take place in the VHIO Auditorium and typically consist of a 50-minute talk followed by a Q&A session.

A total of 17 VHIO – CaixaResearch Scientific Seminars were organized in 2025.

DATE	SPEAKER	TALK TITLE
10/01/2025	Hector G. Palmer, Group Leader, VHIO’s Stem Cells and Cancer Group, Barcelona, Spain.	Targeting drug tolerant persistent cells for preventing cancer progression.
17/01/2025	Marc Güell, ICREA Research Professor, Head of the Translational Synthetic Biology Group, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain.	Writing genomes and metagenomes, and the advent of synthetic evolution.
31/01/2025	Gioacchino Natoli, Group Leader of the Transcriptional Control in Inflammation and Cancer Group, the European Institute of Oncology (IEO), Milan, Italy.	Pancreatic cancer heterogeneity: deconstructing complexity.
14/02/2025	Irene Marco, Group Leader, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Barcelona, Spain.	Hyperpolarization-enhanced NMR and MRI methods for tissue engineering applications.
28/02/2025	Irit Ben Aharon, Director, Fishman Oncology Center and Head, Early-Onset Task Force, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Young Investigator Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer Group (GITCG).	Early-onset GI cancer– an evolving entity.
20/03/2025	Tyler Seibert, Deputy Director, Center for Translational Imaging and Precision Medicine, University of California San Diego, USA.	Quantitative MRI for prostate cancer detection and treatment.
09/05/2025	Jon Zugazagoitia, Department of Medical Oncology, Thoracic Cancer and Early Phase I Unit. Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy Research Group, 12 de Octubre Hospital and i+12 Research Institute, Madrid, Spain.	Clinically applied spatial transcriptomics in lung cancer.
23/05/2025	Mariam Jamal-Hanjani, Clinician Scientist and Group Leader, University College London (UCL) Cancer Institute, UK.	Lung cancer metastatic dissemination from the perspective of the cancer cell, its microenvironment, and the host.
27/06/2025	Sabine Oertelt-Prigio, Gender Unit, Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Sex- and Gender-Sensitive Medicine Unit, Medical Faculty OWL, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.	The role of sex and gender in (bio)medical research.
11/07/2025	Heather Machado, Group Leader, Departments of Pathology and Genetics, University of Cambridge, UK.	Somatic evolution of the adaptive immune system in health and disease.
18/07/2025	Leila Akkari, Group Leader, Macrophages in Cancer, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam. Oncode Institute, Utrecht, the Netherlands.	Macrophages: Jack of all trades in the cancer ecosystem?
03/10/2025	Elena Garralda, co-Director of VHIO’s Clinical Research Program, Group Leader of Early Clinical Drug Development at VHIO.	TIL therapy for solid tumors.
10/10/2025	Jan Hoeijmakers, Principal Investigator, Department of Molecular Genetics, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.	DNA damage and transcription stress and the unexpected impact of nutrition on aging, cancer and medicine in general.
31/10/2025	Ping Chi, Assistant Member, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program (HOPP) and Attending Physician, Department of Medicine, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York, USA.	Transcriptional dysregulation in cancer.
14/11/2025	William Keyes, Group Leader, Common Mechanisms of Development, Cancer and Aging, Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC), Illkirch Cedex, Strasbourg, France.	Messages from senescent Cells: new mechanisms of intercellular.
21/11/2025	Alberto Bardelli, Scientific Director, IFOM ETS - AIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology, Milan, Italy.	Targeting DNA mismatch repair for therapeutic purposes.
28/11/2025	Laura Sánchez Burgos, Senior Editor, Nature Communications, Cancer – Biology and Omics team.	Publishing at Nature Communications and Nature Portfolio.

Benchstorming Seminars

Established in 2016, VHIO’s Benchstorming Seminars represent an excellent opportunity for early career researchers to present and discuss their research with other VHIO researchers.

As part of VHIO’s PhD Training Program coordinated by the VHIO Academy, 3^rd year PhD researchers prepare and deliver a Benchstorming seminar to discuss their research projects. They present their experiments conducted up to the date of the seminar, highlight the potential societal benefits that their research may yield, and reflect on what remains to be done to conclude their PhD journey.

Our Benchstorming Seminars are coordinated by the VHIO Academy and co-chaired by PhD Representatives (PhD Council). A total of 13 seminars took place in 2025.

DATE	SPEAKER	TALK TITLE
27/01/2025	David Gómez Peregrina, Postdoctoral Researcher, Sarcoma Translational Research Group.	To CIN or not to CIN, the gist of GIST? Unraveling the genomic landscape of GIST.
17/02/2025	Iñaki Salvador Corres, Postdoctoral Researcher, Myeloid Malignancies Group.	Full spectrum cytometry for the deep characterization of immune population in blood malignances: a rainbow in the dark.
24/02/2025	Athanasios Grigoriou, Predoctoral Researcher, Radiomics Group.	Histology-informed diffusion MRI simulations and machine learning for cancer microstructure characterization.
10/03/2025	Anna Voronova, Predoctoral Researcher, Radiomics Group.	A boost for IVIM: Advancing microvasculature characterization in DW-MRI by simulating perfusion flow on histology data.
17/03/2025	Carlo M. Cicala, Predoctoral Researcher, Sarcoma Translational Research Group.	Molecular characterization of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) with long-term response to imatinib.
24/03/2025	Arnau Llinàs, Predoctoral Researcher, Cancer Computational Biology Group.	Molecular changes in endocrine therapy-treated estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.
31/03/2025	Ana Dueso, Postdoctoral Researcher, Computational Immunogenomics Group.	The blueprint of HLA-I presentation for all human missense variants and its contribution to immunoediting in cancer genomes.
14/04/2025	Iván Olivares, Predoctoral Researcher, Sarcoma Translational Research Group.	Understanding the role of the UPR in GIST: implications for disease progression and therapy adaptation.
28/04/2025	Mariana Yáñez Bartolome, Predoctoral Researcher, Stem Cells and Cancer Group.	Advancing next-generation therapies for cholangiocarcinoma.
05/05/2025	Patricia Fernández Guzmán, Predoctoral Researcher, Lymphoid Malignancies Group.	Immune evasion-related mechanisms of progression in CLL using the MDR-/- mouse model.
19/05/2025	Cayetano J. Galera Martínez, Predoctoral Researcher, Gene Expression and Cancer Group.	Understanding the role of LIF in the bone metastatic microenvironment.
30/06/2025	Laura Carrillo Bosch, Predoctoral Researcher, Gene Expression and Cancer Group.	Metabolic reprogramming of TAMs impairs T-cell function and promotes glioblastoma progression.
07/07/2025	Societat Catalana d’Immunologia (SCI).	Meet the Catalan Society of Immunology and its naïve immunologists group.

Ad-hoc courses, workshops, perceptorships and observerships

Focused on specific, cutting-edge aspects of cancer research and treatment, we also organize and host several ad-hoc events throughout the year. A total of 66 ad-hoc courses, workshops, preceptorships and observerships took place in 2025.

In addition to these events, as a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (2022-2026), VHIO has developed its PAtient and CiTizen InvolvemENT Program. This program includes VHIO Talks for patients and their families as well as conferences for patient advocacy associations.