Brain Cancer Cell Migration

The project is carried out in collaboration with Mr Richard Mair (Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cancer Research UK) and Dr Thierry Savin (Engineering Department, University of Cambridge).

Glioblastoma (GB) is a lethal brain cancer with an average survival of 15 months. It is highly invasive and located within important brain structures thus limiting the extent to which surgery and radiotherapy can be utilised. We are investigating 3D GB invasion in vitro using patient-derived low passage GB cells, obtained from the neuro oncology biorepository which are characterised to the level of the genome and transcriptome. The aim of the project is to correlate morphological invasive phenotypes with functional molecular pathways that are modulated during invasion in order to allow mechanistic interpretation and inform the potential for therapeutic targeting of driver pathways.