Areas of Focus
Basic Research
Molecular Neuro-Oncology Laboratory
- Underlying biology of glioma pathogenesis and invasion
- Identification of novel tumor suppressors
- Mechanisms of pluripotency and differentiation in neural and glioma stem cells
- Tumor-tumor and tumor-host interactions
Translational Research
Starr Foundation Cerebral Organoid Translational Core
- High throughput drug screening to develop personalized treatment for individual patients
- Preclinical trials for commercial drug candidates
GLICO – A novel GLIoma Cerebral Organoid model
Our most recent initiative is the creation of cerebral organoids to use these “in vitro human brains” as 3-D platforms for growing and studying how primary patient-derived glioblastoma tumor stem cells proliferate, invade, migrate and destroy human brain tissue. We have developed a novel model system (GLICO) whereby we retro-engineer patient-derived primary brain tumors (gliomas) into iPSC/hESC-derived human cerebral organoids, ultimately forming tumors that closely phenocopy patient glioblastomas.
