Iker Badiola Etxaburu. Universidad del País Vasco

• WHO are you?

I am Iker Badiola Etxaburu, a biologist by training and a professor at the University of the Basque Country in the Faculty of Medicine and Nursing.

• WHAT do you research?

I research cancer, and more specifically, the tumor microenvironment. As cancer grows and reaches certain dimensions, it needs more nutrients and oxygen for its growth, and it manipulates its surroundings to make the healthy tissues around it help in its progression. I study the mechanisms that make healthy tissue work for cancer.

• WHERE do you research?

I research at the Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, in the Department of Cell Biology and Histology, but I have collaborators all around the world; colleagues who are experts in disciplines that are more foreign to me and help me in my projects, and reciprocally, I also try to support their projects with my knowledge. Bordeaux, Cairo, Cincinnati, New York, and Barcelona are some of the locations of my collaborators.

• WHEN do you plan to do your work?

I do my work every day, both when I come to the University and when I attend a conference or meeting held outside the university facilities. I don’t forget that I combine research with teaching in the degrees of Medicine and Dentistry.

• WHY is your work important?

University professors are both teachers and researchers; we have an equally important and transcendent dual function: teaching trades to future generations and deepening knowledge that can be applied to improve people’s health and quality of life.

• Is your work related to any EU mission?

My research falls within the Mission Cancer: working with Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan to improve the lives of more than 3 million people by 2030 through prevention, cure and solutions to live longer and better.

COMPARTE EN TUS REDES SOCIALES CON EL HASHTAG #NIGHTSPAIN