About us
The mission of ISCaM (ex ISPDC, International Society for Proton Dynamics in Cancer) is to improve communication and to foster collaborative activities and research programs between European and non European scientists engaged in acidity, proton dynamics, metabolism and microenvironment in cancer research.
ISCaM can consolidate, co-ordinate and facilitate International collaboration, facilitate translation of research to clinical development, and fundraise for Networking activities, scientific programs and projects, scientists mobility, young scientists grants and carrier programs.
Read ISCaM Statute at this link
Our Mission
Our mission is to advocate and effectively promote our approach to cancer therapy in the scientific community, social community, Funding Agencies, Governments, and stimulate translation into clinical applications.
- To create a critical mass of scientists engaged in research activities on Metabolism in Cancer.
- To gain visibility at National, European and International level.
- To duly raise the necessary awareness of both the scientific community and society.
- To attract resources to finance and conduct research in the field of metabolism in cancer.
- To be recognized as an important counterpart for the European Commission, funding agencies and Industry.
- To represent the main scientific stakeholder in the field.
ISCaM numbers
10 years of activities
25
Travel Grants Awarded
180
Members
10
Annual meetings
Board members
Paolo Porporato
President
Professor of Physiology at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London; Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua and Satellite Group Leader at Francis Crick Institute of London.
His research focuses on understanding how mitochondria provide adaptation during the development of heterogeneous and chemoresistant tumours by studying the transcriptional program underlying mitochondrial biogenesis and the associated metabolic phenotype of cancer subtypes. His research groups use advanced imaging approaches at the UCL campus and perform metabolomic profiling of in vivo tumour models at the Crick institute. He co-founded the Consortium for Mitochondrial Research at UCL
Gyorgy Szabadkai
Past-President
Professor of Physiology at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London; Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua and Satellite Group Leader at Francis Crick Institute of London.
His research focuses on understanding how mitochondria provide adaptation during the development of heterogeneous and chemoresistant tumours by studying the transcriptional program underlying mitochondrial biogenesis and the associated metabolic phenotype of cancer subtypes. His research groups use advanced imaging approaches at the UCL campus and perform metabolomic profiling of in vivo tumour models at the Crick institute. He co-founded the Consortium for Mitochondrial Research at UCL
Pawel Swietach
President-elect
Professor of Physiology at Oxford University. My laboratory at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (http://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/) investigates signalling by small molecules in the heart and in cancer, with a particular focus on hydrogen ions, which determine pH. Our ambition is to understand how cells handle their acidic products and how, in turn, acid/base chemistry affects biology.
In 2008, I was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to study pH regulation in 3-D tissue-like structures, with particular emphasis on cancer physiology. This work is done in collaboration with Professor Adrian L Harris in Oxford.
In 2017, I began two research programmes: one on the role of acid handling and sensing in cancer, with a focus on colorectal cancer, and the other on how acid-base balance is altered in failing hearts.
Fatima Baltazar
Secretary
Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the School of Medicine, University of Minho, Principal Investigator at ICVS (Life and Health Sciences Research Institute) and Coordinator of the Surgical Sciences Research Domain. Fatima’s current research interest is on cancer glycolytic metabolism, especially on monocarboxylate transporters, focusing on the discovery of new cancer prognostic biomarkers and exploitation of therapeutic targets.
Alessandro Carrer
Board Member
Group Leader at the Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM) in Padua. Alessandro investigates metabolic dependencies and their impact on epigenomic reprogramming during pancreatic carcinogenesis.
He trained at University of Pennsylvania and his lab employs mouse transgenics to dissect metabolic and epigenomic perturbations that lead to tumor onset.
Elena Rainero
Board Member
Elena Rainero is a lecturer at the University of Sheffield and a Cancer Research UK Fellow. Her research focuses on understanding how the extracellular matrix supports breast cancer cell growth and metabolism.
Cyril Corbet
Board Member
Research associate from the F.R.S.-FNRS in the Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at UCLouvain in Brussels. Cyril’s research focus is the understanding of the metabolic preferences in relapse-supporting cancer cells and the interplay with the tumor microenvironment along tumor evolution, through the use of patient-derived tumor xenograts and organoid models.
Margherita Cortini
Treasurer
Tenure-track scientist at the Department for Research, Innovation and Technology of the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Specialty Hospital (Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli) in Bologna, Italy. Margherita’s research focus is the understanding of the interaction between tumor and stromal cells and their reciprocal metabolic reprogramming during primary and metastatic tumor growth.