Researchers from our centre awarded the ‘Juan Antonio García Torres’ prize

28 January, 2025

The prestigious ‘Juan Antonio García Torres’ prize, organised by the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Eastern Andalusia in collaboration with the Official College of Physicians of Granada, has recently been awarded to the work entitled ‘Identification of novel biomarkers in the early diagnosis of malignant melanoma by untargeted liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry-based metabolomics: a pilot study’. This study, developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers, represents an important advance in the early diagnosis of malignant melanoma, a highly aggressive type of skin cancer.

The winning team, composed of Jesús Peña-Martín, María Belén García-Ortega, José Luis Palacios-Ferrer, Caridad Díaz, María Ángel García, Houria Boulaiz, Javier Valdivia, José Miguel Jurado, Francisco M. Almazán-Fernández, Salvador Arias Santiago, Francisca Vicente, Coral Del Val, José Pérez Del Palacio and Juan Antonio Marchal, has developed a classification model based on metabolomics to identify circulating biomarkers in blood that allow the early detection of malignant melanoma.

Our colleague Coral del Val is one of those responsible for the work and the person in charge of carrying out the Artificial Intelligence study with which the data has been analysed.

About the award-winning study

Malignant melanoma (MM) is one of the most aggressive types of skin cancer, the incidence of which continues to rise worldwide. Its prognosis is excellent if diagnosed in early stages, but mortality increases considerably in advanced stages. This study addresses one of the main clinical challenges: early detection of aggressive melanoma.

Metabolomic analysis of 105 serum samples from 26 healthy patients and 79 patients with malignant melanoma identified lipid metabolites that are differentially expressed in stage I melanoma patients versus healthy controls. From three of these metabolites, the researchers developed a classification model that showed exceptional precision (0.92) and accuracy (0.94) when validated in an independent cohort.

Clinical implications and future applications

This work demonstrates the potential of metabolomics based on liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) to identify early biomarkers in body fluids, such as blood. These tools could be instrumental in patient counselling and appropriate disease management. While the authors highlight the need for further studies in larger cohorts, these findings open the door to a more effective approach to improve survival rates through early diagnosis.

This award recognises the relevance and scientific quality of the work carried out, reaffirming our research centre’s commitment to innovation and excellence in the biomedical field.

News of the article on the website of the University of Granada – April 2024