María José Sánchez, scientific director of ibs.GRANADA, on the Scientific Committee of the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer
María José Sánchez has been appointed by the Governing Council of this agency as a member of its Scientific Committee
The scientific director of Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada (ibs.GRANADA) and professor of the Andalusian School of Public Health, Maria Jose Sanchez, has been designated by the Governing Council of this agency as member of its Scientific Committee.
The director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (its acronym in English IARC), Elizabeth Weider Pass, has notified the election of María José Sánchez, professor at the Andalusian School of Public Health (EASP) and scientific director of the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada (ibs.GRANADA), as a new member of its Scientific Council for the next four years.
IARC is an agency of the World Health Organization (WHO) specialized in promoting international collaboration in cancer research. The Agency brings together the knowledge and epidemiology tools, laboratory sciences and biostatistics in order to help identify the causes of cancer so that preventive measures can be adopted and reduce the burden of disease and the associated suffering.
The Scientific Council It is made up of highly qualified scientists in cancer research and other related fields. The Scientific Council, which meets in ordinary session once a year, at the end of January or beginning of February, reviews the scientific activities of the Agency and makes recommendations on its program of permanent activities and priorities.
EASP actively collaborates with IARC through the Granada Cancer Registry, directed by Professor Mª José Sánchez, and the European Prospective Study on Nutrition and Cancer (EPIC), a cohort study of more than 500.000 participants which includes 8.000 people from Granada with a follow-up of more than 30 years. Dr. Sánchez is the principal investigator of this project in Granada, she also coordinates the EPIC-Spain project and is a member of the EPIC-Europe steering committee.
Research and Cancer: the mission of a life
Dr. Sánchez has extensive experience in the design and development of epidemiological studies related to etiology, health care, inequalities and survival of cancer patients, having led and collaborated on more than 30 research projects at European, national and regional level. The results of these projects have been reflected in more than 150 scientific publications in the last 5 years.
She is Principal Investigator of a research group of excellence from the CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), from ibs.GRANADA and from the PAIDI Research Group of the EASP on 'Research in Public Health and Health Services'.
She was president of the Spanish Network of Cancer Registries (REDECAN) and elected member of the Steering Committee of the European Network of Cancer Registries (ENCR). Since December 2017, she has been the coordinator of the CIBERESP Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Control Program.
She is coordinator of the EPIC-Spain study and principal investigator of the EPIC-Granada study. She participates in the Andalusian Cancer Strategy, coordinating the strategic line on 'Epidemiology and Information Systems'. Furthermore, she is principal investigator of Andalusia in the Predictive Medicine Program of the IMPaCT infrastructure from the Carlos III Health Institute, which aims to recruit a multicenter and multipurpose cohort in Spain of 200.000 people.
In 2018 she was included in the list of Highly Cited Researchers, being one of the most cited researchers in the world in the field of Oncology. She is a professor of the Clinical Medicine and Public Health doctoral program at the University of Granada since 2019 and has been recognized as a Visiting Scholar of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the UGR from 2019 to 2021.
He is a member of the advisory committee of Andalusia Personalized Precision Medicine Plan, director of the 5P Precision Medicine Chair with the University of Granada and Roche Farma and director of the Obesity and other Metabolic Diseases chair with the University of Granada and Novo Nordisk.
He is a member of the advisory committee of Strategic Biobank Plan of the Public Health System of Andalusia and member of the external scientific advisory committee of the Pfizer-University of Granada-Junta de Andalucía Center for Genomics and Oncology Research (GENYO), as well as the Institute for Health Research of Castilla la Mancha (IDISCAM).
