INFORMA and CRIS Against Cancer: five years driving research into acute myeloid leukaemia

INFORMA maintains a firm commitment to sustainability and social action as part of its corporate responsibility strategy. Within this framework, the company has maintained its support for cancer research for five years by co-financing one of the Fundación CRIS Contra el CáncerFoundation CRIS Against Cancer. The collaboration, launched in 2022 and continuing through to 2026, has contributed to the development of the project led by Dr María Velasco, a researcher at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) and Madrid’s 12 de Octubre University Hospital.

Specifically, the team is studying mechanisms related to acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), which is currently the adult acute leukaemia with the poorest prognosis due to its high relapse rate. Specifically, María Velasco’s team is investigating the role of PIEZO1, a protein that responds to mechanical stimuli and could play a relevant role in the resistance of certain leukaemia cells to treatments. 

As part of this collaboration, INFORMA held a meeting with its employees this morning, at which Dr María Velasco presented first-hand the progress achieved thanks to this research and the project’s next challenges. During this meeting, the CRIS Against Cancer researcher highlighted that: “The support of INFORMA and CRIS Against Cancer since 2022 has enabled us to make decisive progress in understanding the mechanisms that drive resistance and relapse in acute myeloid leukaemia. We have identified new lines of research that can help us better understand why some cells survive treatment and explore future therapeutic strategies to eliminate them”. 

The results obtained to date have made it possible to observe higher levels of PIEZO1 in cells from patients with AML than in stem cells from healthy patients. The research has also identified SIGLEC-6 as a possible target of interest for exploring future immunotherapy strategies aimed at resistant cells. 

Isaac Martín Barbero, chief executive officer and managing director of Informa D&B, says: “Supporting over these years a project like this one, so brilliantly led by Dr María Velasco and focused on finding solutions, reflects our commitment to contributing to initiatives that generate a positive and lasting impact on society. Research needs time, talent and resources to move forward, and for INFORMA it is a source of satisfaction to have been able to accompany CRIS and its research team on this journey”. 

Ana García, Director of Organisation and People at Informa D&B, notes: “This collaboration represents very well how we understand our social commitment: supporting projects capable of improving people’s lives. Being able to bring this research closer to our employees and give them the opportunity to meet directly the people who make it possible adds extra value to this initiative. The progress achieved over these years encourages us to continue promoting projects that contribute to society’s wellbeing”. 

Corporate collaboration is particularly relevant for scientific projects to be developed with continuity. As stated by the executive vice-president of CRIS Against Cancer, Estanis de la Quadra-Salcedo: “At CRIS Against Cancer we work to ensure that researchers have the stability and resources they need to advance knowledge, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The involvement of companies such as INFORMA enables us to sustain long-term research projects and help ensure that these scientific advances can be transformed into better treatments and new opportunities for patients”. 

María Velasco’s project is now continuing to delve deeper into the role of PIEZO1 and analysing patient samples at the time of diagnosis and relapse. The aim is to better understand what enables some cells to survive treatment and move towards new strategies that help prevent and treat relapses of acute myeloid leukaemia.

You can find out more about INFORMA’s ESG performance in its 2025 Sustainability Report, which sets out the organisation’s progress on environmental, social and governance matters. The document puts the overall level of compliance with its ESG scorecard at 93%, above the target set for the fiscal year, which was 92%.