.The InstituteThe Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) is an international biomedical research institute of excellence, based in Barcelona, Spain, with more than 400 scientists from 44 countries. The CRG is composed of an interdisciplinary, motivated and creative scientific team supported by a flexible and efficient administration and high-end innovative technologies. In April 2021, the CRG received the renewal of the 'HR Excellence in Research' Award from the European Commission, recognizing the Institute's commitment to developing an HR Strategy for Researchers, designed to align practices and procedures with the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (Charter and Code).The roleAlternative splicing (AS) is the important process that allows the production of different messenger RNAs and proteins from a single gene in humans and other complex organisms. AS plays a crucial role in mechanisms controlling gene expression. Mutations affecting AS contribute to the development of many diseases, including cancer. While drugs that target AS have recently entered the clinic and provided the first therapy for common genetic disorders, there is still much to learn about the mechanisms controlling splicing and their modulation by small molecules. Small molecule inhibitors of spliceosome assembly have been used to generate alterations in RNA processing in cancer cells leading to the synthesis of neoantigens. The role of the postdoc to be hired will be to contribute to the characterization of molecular mechanisms of AS regulation by small molecule modulators of RNA splicing, the generation of neoantigens, and their characterization for potential use in immunotherapy. This is a collaborative project (CANCERNA) supported by the EC-funded H2020 Health Program.About the teamThe group of Juan Valcárcel at the CRG has a long trajectory studying pre-mRNA splicing regulation. The group combines high-throughput methods with detailed biochemical and cellular assays and collaborates closely with other groups working on computational and structural biology to study molecular mechanisms and networks of alternative splicing regulation in cancer. The group also develops mechanism-based novel therapeutic approaches for oncology. Juan Valcárcel obtained his PhD from work on influenza virus splicing regulation at the Center of Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa in Madrid. After a postdoc with Michael Green at the University of Massachusetts, he established his group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg in 1996. In 2002, the group moved to the newly created CRG in Barcelona. He is a Research Professor of the Catalonian Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and associated Professor of the University Pompeu Fabra
