Interactions between glioblastoma tumour cells
Fast facts
- Official title: A novel genetic system to study and exploit glioblastoma heterogeneity
- Lead researcher: Dr Paulo Ribeiro
- Where: Queen Mary University of London
- When: October 2017 – March 2019
- Cost: £74,488
- Research type: Adult, Glioblastoma (High Grade)
One of the major challenges in treating glioblastoma tumours is that they are made up of many different cell types, each with different genetic mutations – a phenomenon also known as tumour heterogeneity.
Dr Ribeiro and his team aim to develop a genetic tool called OncoChrome to study tumour heterogeneity in fruit flies. This tool will be used to tag genes with a fluorescent marker, allowing the team to track cells with the fluorescent genes to look at how tumour heterogeneity influences tumour progression. They will then see how this knowledge can then be used as a target to develop better treatments for glioblastoma patients.
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