Research Abstract

Diffused intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a highly malignant and lethal form of pediatric brain tumor that makes up half of the patients with high-grade glioma. DIPG tumor cells invade the pontine region of the brain that is critical for sustaining life, making it challenging to surgically remove the tumor. Currently, there is no therapeutic cure for DIPG, and most patients succumb to the disease within two years of diagnosis despite standard treatment with radiotherapy. A major obstacle for finding a cure for DIPG is the lack of a research model that can faithfully recapitulate how tumor cells infiltrate the brain tissue, and how immune cells of the brain react to tumor invasion.

To address this limitation, my lab has used human stem cells to build an organoid (mini brain) model of DIPG that enables us to study how the tumor cells and the immune cells of the brain interact with each other within a tissue environment. In the proposed project, we will employ cutting-edge microscopy and molecular biology technologies to characterize the interaction patterns between DIPG and brain immune cells as the tumor cells infiltrate brain tissue, and to identify genes and signaling molecules that mediate such interactions. Results from this innovative study will reveal the therapeutic vulnerabilities of DIPG and help inform development of novel therapies that stimulate the immune cells in the brain to fend off the invasion of DIPG cells and halt the progression of this devastating disease.