The Ramón y Cajal University Hospital, a public center of the Community of Madrid, will develop a tool based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) through the Hereditary Cancer Unit, thanks to a collaboration agreement with the Sener Foundation, to identify cancer risk. It will be developed jointly between the two institutions, based on anonymized information from 10,000 family trees (spanning three or more generations) and individual clinical data. This information includes data such as age at diagnosis, presence and type of tumors or relevant benign pathologies, among others.

Simplifying the decision-making process

The aim of this tool is to assist clinicians in their decision-making process by estimating an individual’s risk of having an inherited genetic susceptibility to cancer. Unlike other medical tests, germline DNA genetic studies can predict future disease development, improve early diagnosis and prevention and, additionally, can be relevant not only to the individual, but also to his or her family members. Currently, only one in 10 people who are decided, according to conventional methods, to undergo genetic testing have an alteration in their genes.

Advances in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cancer have made it possible to discover genes whose functional alteration carries a risk of developing certain malignant diseases, representing considerable progress and a challenge in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of tumors. It is estimated that between 5 and 10% of all cancers are hereditary, i.e., the person suffering from cancer is born with a genetic alteration that predisposes to a higher risk of developing this disease.

According to Dr. Carmen Guillén Ponce, head of the Medical Oncology section and head of the Family Cancer Unit at the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital, “artificial intelligence provides data analysis tools that can facilitate the decision-making process in clinical practice and, specifically, in the Family Cancer Unit, it will allow us to more accurately select families and individuals who are candidates for genetic testing to identify their hereditary risk of cancer. This has very important implications in terms of their follow-up for early detection of cancer, their treatments, if needed, and their offspring. Our aim is to provide excellent and humane healthcare, centered on the individual, patients, and their families, and to achieve this we seek to transfer knowledge to the well-being of patients and society, through prevention, research and innovation,” concludes Guillén.

The head of the project at Sener, Daniel Martínez, emphasizes that “being able to analyze all the family and clinical data as a whole and thanks to the application of AI techniques will make it possible to obtain an analytical tool of great utility for the clinicians in charge of interpreting the individual’s genogram and to more efficiently select candidates for a germline genetic study. We are pleased to put the knowledge of our engineers at the service of clinicians, with the consequent utility for their work and, ultimately, for the well-being of individuals and families.”

The Rector of the University of Cantabria (UC) and Chairman of the Leonardo Torres Quevedo Foundation (LTQF), Ángel Pazos Carro, presented the  XII Business Collaboration Award to the Sener Group , represented by José Julián Echevarría, Managing Director of Aerospace and Defence at Sener.

The event took place this morning in the Gómez Laá hall of the UC’s Law and Economics and Business Building. Also present were the President of the Social Board, José Luis Zarate, and the Managing Director of the LTQF, Jorge Castro, as well as other representatives of both the academic institution and the award-winning company.

The nomination, put forth by Amparo Herrera Guardado, Director of the Communications Engineering Department at the UC and supported by different research centres and groups at the institution, “represents the most cutting-edge advances in engineering and technology at the international level and is a magnificent example of how private investment can collaborate with the university to develop the regional and national production fabric, and to train highly qualified professionals”, noted the jury, stating that it is “a benchmark for effective collaboration between academia and industry”.

José Julián Echevarría emphasised how “receiving this prize is an honour”, detailing that, in relation to the future, “the projects we want to develop here are at the forefront of technology. We are talking about collaborative projects such as data links for defence programs, for satellites, the largest hypertonic threat interception programme being developed here…”.

Meanwhile, the rector and chairman of the LTQF, Ángel Pazos, noted that this recognition is for a business group that has been collaborating with several groups at the University of Cantabria for years, “since there is a tradition of research projects with groups from different faculties, from different schools; as a result, the prize is fully merited in this regard”.

Pazos went on to say how there is a second aspect of this prize, which is that in this case, it is a project in training, since a company delegation was recently set up on campus, “a move that we are certain will result in a very clear increase in collaboration on research activity, transfer activity and economic activity”.  “I’m particularly excited about this prize because it combines our past trajectory with the clear plan for the future”, the rector concluded.

Close collaboration

Sener has been collaborating with the UC since the early 90s through six different departments and research institutes, resulting in 41 research projects for the various firms that make up this corporate group, with an approximate investment by the group of one and a half million euros.

Examples of these collaborations include those with the Communications Engineering Department, whose first project dates back to 1995, on the optimisation of hemispheric coverage antennas, and the latest project, currently under development, on advanced architectures for power amplifiers.

Other recent or current projects are on topics such as the design and construction of port facilities adapted to climate change, floating platforms for wind power, hydrodynamic studies for a bridge project in Brazil, and modelling discharges from desalination plants, conducted in collaboration with IHCantabria.

In 2023, Sener opened a branch in Santander at the Technology Development Centre of the University of Cantabria (CDTUC), as noted by the manager of the LTQF, Jorge Castro, who manages the Leonardo Torres Quevedo Foundation (LTQF), in an effort to promote its Aerospace and Defence Department. This represents a step forward in its collaboration with the region, developing, for example, projects for the European Space Agency in concert with the UC.

Sener

The Sener Group develops innovative engineering and technology solutions in various markets, such as Aerospace and Defence, Energy, Transport Infrastructure, Advanced Facilities for Data Centres, Digital and Marine, and it promotes, through industrial holdings, companies in the renewable energies sector.

Sener is a private engineering and technology group founded in 1956 which seeks to transform the world by pushing the limits of technology in an effort to help its customers with innovative and effective solutions through its distinctive values: innovation, excellence, commitment, passion and teamwork. Sener has around 4,000 professionals on five continents. Sener works in the sectors.

“Sener is renowned for the level of its national and international impact through engaging in engineering projects and providing highly specialised technology services, which in turn requires highly qualified personnel, many of whom were educated in the UC”, according to the jury’s statement. Against this backdrop, Sener has promoted the completion of Bachelor’s and Master’s Theses as part of its research projects at the UC.

LTQF

The Leonardo Torres Quevedo Foundation is a non-profit organisation that aims to promote and disseminate science and technical research at the University of Cantabria, and to develop professionals in the field of technology by providing professional and quality management. It also aims to consolidate the Technology Development Centre at the UC (CDTUC) as a space and model for collaboration between research groups and companies in order to create technology companies.

Guillermo Dierssen, Chief Technical Engineer at Sener specializing in geotechnics and tunnels, has received the Medal for Professional Merit from the Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos – the Spanish Association of Civil Engingeers – in an event celebrated this July, 10 June, in the auditorium Agustín de Betancourt del Colegio.

The award is a professional recognition to those collegiates who have distinguished themselves in a relevant way throughout their region, having carried out a work of indisputable merit or having rendered outstanding services for the benefit of the sector and its professionals.

In addition to having led and participated in numerous projects in the Mobility area in the last 30 years, such as Línea 1 del Metro in Panama City, or the railway tunnels in Port Said, in Egypt, Guillermo has supported his work professional with teaching, as a professor.