The National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) will shut three scientific items, two of them devoted to the analysis of most cancers, and one other centered on the event of latest medication, in response to sources on the heart, the most important in Spain in its self-discipline.
The affected items are the Family Cancer Unit, the Molecular Diagnostic Unit and the Experimental Therapies Unit. The determination is a part of the reorganization of the group deliberate by its new scientific director, Raúl Rabadán – who has not but been confirmed in his place – and the supervisor, José Manuel Bernabé. The measures intention to open a brand new stage within the heart, which goes by a deep disaster as a result of deterioration of its scientific infrastructure and the affect of an alleged plot of fraudulent contracts that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is investigating.
The Familial Cancer Unit was created in 2007 and focuses on genetic analysis and translational analysis of hereditary most cancers and familial most cancers, which collectively symbolize between 25% and 30% of all tumors, in response to the CNIO. The unit, with a director and 6 laboratory technicians, supplies everlasting providers to the Fuenlabrada University Hospital, in Madrid, and to different facilities in Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha and different communities. Since 2005, it has supplied genetic analysis to greater than 5,000 sufferers. Six laboratory technicians, a visiting scientist, and the top of the unit work on this group.
The Molecular Diagnostic Unit goals to supply high quality molecular checks to most cancers sufferers by the National Health System. It provides extremely delicate assays to detect genetic alterations, making it simpler for docs to diagnose early, and higher handle sufferers by monitoring minimal residual illness after most cancers remission or predicting response to remedy. A director and a laboratory technician work there.
Experimental Therapies is a program devoted to the troublesome activity of bridging the hole between primary analysis and its translation into new anti-cancer medication. This group contains 12 scientists and technicians plus a typical chief.
The new administration of the CNIO has knowledgeable these liable for the primary two items that its Action Plan contemplates that the middle focus solely on scientific analysis, which doesn’t embrace any exercise devoted to analysis, in response to sources on the heart. The measure is a part of a deeper reorganization that Rabadán, Bernabé and the appearing scientific director, Fernando Peláez, have designed. In the case of experimental therapies, the brand new administration considers that this system has not borne the specified outcomes and that “it is not profitable” for the middle, in response to sources near the CNIO. One of the important thing features of the reform can be figuring out how lots of the affected employees will be relocated to different items, which might keep away from having to make a dreaded Employment Regulation File.
The arrival of Raúl Rabadán was introduced in September as a star signing. The 51-year-old physicist and bioinformatician from Madrid had labored at Columbia University, within the United States, the place he directed the Mathematical Genomics Program, centered on the huge evaluation of oncological information to raised perceive the evolution of most cancers and uncover new remedies. Rabadán arrives on the CNIO with the duty of rebuilding the middle and opening a brand new scientific stage that leaves the crises behind.
The new plan contains the reinforcement of synthetic intelligence and computational methods to reinforce the middle’s science with the intention of bettering the prevention, analysis and remedy of most cancers, as reported yesterday by the CNIO in a be aware. The plan contains increasing collaboration with Spanish and worldwide hospitals and analysis facilities and consolidating itself as a nationwide reference heart in most cancers genomics.
The argument for closing the diagnostic items is that genetic analysis is already a service supplied by the National Health System.
Regarding analysis into new therapies, the CNIO intends to deal with immunotherapy and cell remedy. After a strategic evaluation, the plan redirects the sources of the Experimental Therapies Program to areas which are thought-about priorities, equivalent to superior genomics, computational biology or shared technological platforms.
In addition to the elimination of the Experimental Therapies program, the plan contemplates the creation of two new scientific applications: Computational and Systems Biology of Cancer and Precision Cancer and Population Genomics, which reinforce using Artificial Intelligence.
The CNIO goes by its worst disaster since its creation in 1998. In 2024, the middle’s board of trustees, headed by officers from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities headed by Diana Morant, unanimously agreed to dismiss its scientific director, María Blasco, towards whom a number of complaints of office harassment weighed, as this newspaper reported. The board additionally dismissed the managing director, Juan Arroyo.
The determination got here after the middle’s scientific leaders complained in earlier years in regards to the state of neglect of among the heart’s scientific services, particularly its 4 confocal microscopes, of which just one was already working. They additionally demanded that the ministry dismiss Blasco, whom they noticed as incapable of managing the middle and getting it out of its disaster.
In 2025, a second scandal broke out following a grievance to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office that claimed that the previous supervisor, Juan Arroyo, was the alleged ringleader of a scheme of rigged contracts. According to the whistleblower’s calculations, round 20 million euros might have been stolen from the CNIO’s coffers by alleged contracts with associated firms, equivalent to Gedosol or Zeus. The grievance was filed by The World and confirmed by this newspaper, in addition to two earlier alerts that the particular person accountable made to senior officers of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
The complainant, who had labored on the CNIO for many years, was abruptly fired together with one other colleague simply earlier than the brand new supervisor took up his place. Those affected preserve that they have been fired for having uncovered the alleged corrupt plot and are awaiting trial for alleged unfair dismissal.
At the top of final yr, the disaster accelerated to an unprecedented diploma. On November 25, the board struck down Juan Arroyo, who since his dismissal in 2024 had returned to his earlier place as deputy financial director. The expenses of two of his collaborators are additionally eradicated. Just sooner or later later, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office confirms that it’s investigating the case. On December 22, simply earlier than Christmas, the National Police goes to the CNIO to request documentation on the request of the Madrid Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
Beyond the alleged instances of corruption, the CNIO faces an unsure monetary scenario. During the 2024 disaster it was recognized that the establishment accrued a deficit of 4.5 million euros. Its complete finances is about 40 million, about 20 of them are public funds from the State. For now, Diana Morant’s Ministry of Science has assured that it’ll financially assist the CNIO to make sure that it stays a nationwide and worldwide reference in its area, however the lack of General State Budgets might make that dedication more and more troublesome to meet.
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https://elpais.com/ciencia/2026-01-14/el-cnio-cierra-sus-unidades-de-diagnostico-del-cancer-y-desarrollo-de-nuevos-farmacos.html