The Fine Lab studies glioblastoma with the goal of understanding why it is so difficult to control and finding better ways to develop treatments. Our work brings together researchers in cancer, neuroscience, genetics, engineering, and computation. Although their methods differ, they are working on a shared problem: how a tumor survives within the brain, changes in response to treatment, and begins growing again.
The brain is not simply the place where this cancer happens to grow. Tumor cells interact with nearby brain cells and with the cells that provide immune protection and tissue support. Those relationships can change how the cancer behaves. We study the tumor together with its surroundings so that important parts of the disease are not lost before an experiment begins.
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How the laboratory approaches the problem
One tool developed in the laboratory is GLICO. It combines cells obtained from a patient’s tumor with small pieces of human brain-like tissue grown in the laboratory, called cerebral organoids. This allows researchers to observe how cancer cells enter neural tissue, communicate with neighboring cells, and respond to an experimental intervention. An organoid is not a complete brain, but it gives us access to interactions that cannot be studied adequately when cancer cells are grown alone.
The experiments address several questions. Some researchers study how tumor cells communicate and whether interrupting those connections changes their ability to spread. Others investigate how cancer cells change their behavior after treatment and whether those changes expose new weaknesses. Another part of the laboratory follows what surviving cells do after radiation, asking which processes allow the disease to recover. Studies of immune cells and tissue support help us understand the role of the surrounding brain in each of these responses.
We also test potential treatments in patient-derived models and measure both effects on the tumor and effects on the surrounding tissue. Computational approaches, including AI-assisted research, help compare results and develop ideas for the next experiment. They do not replace testing. A major goal is to learn whether differences measured in the laboratory can eventually help explain why individual patients respond differently and improve the selection of treatments for clinical study.
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What this research means for patients
This website describes laboratory research, not a currently validated service for selecting an individual patient’s treatment. An encouraging response in an organoid does not establish that the same drug will reach a tumor at an effective concentration, be safe for a patient, or improve the outcome of treatment. Those questions require further preclinical work and appropriately designed clinical studies. The purpose of our research is to make the evidence supporting those studies more informative.
Patients and families can contribute to scientific progress through research participation when an appropriate approved study is available. Opportunities depend on the project, eligibility, consent, and the clinical setting. Please discuss research participation with your treating team rather than sending tissue or medical information directly to the laboratory.
For appointments, questions about care, or information about clinical studies, please use the official Weill Cornell Medicine clinical service. The laboratory research inbox is not a clinical consultation service and should not be used for medical records or urgent concerns.
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Supporting the research
Philanthropic support helps the laboratory pursue questions that are scientifically important but difficult to address within the boundaries of an established project. It can support the first experiments on a new mechanism, the skilled people needed to build and maintain human models, or the collection of data required to test a predictive approach. This flexibility is particularly valuable when an unexpected observation points to a different way of understanding the disease.
Current priorities include understanding how glioblastoma recovers after treatment, identifying dependencies created by its interactions with the brain, and building well-characterized experimental response datasets across different patient-derived tumors. Support also sustains the training of scientists who can work across these fields. The value of a gift is not simply the number of experiments it purchases, but the opportunity to resolve a consequential uncertainty and decide what research should follow.
We welcome conversations about the scientific priorities, the work a gift could enable, and the milestones by which progress can be assessed. Not every hypothesis will prove correct, and laboratory discoveries cannot guarantee benefit for an individual patient. The commitment is to pursue important questions, test them carefully, and use the results to guide the next step. To discuss support, please contact Weill Cornell Medicine’s development team and specify your interest in Fine Lab glioblastoma research.
Please contact haf9016@med.cornell.edu about supporting Fine Lab research.