Brain Tumor Translational Targets

Glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSCs), which play a crucial role in tumor relapse, exhibit strong resistance to conventional chemo- and radiotherapy due to their robust self-renewal capacity. The primary goal of the research group is to identify molecular dependencies in GSCs to uncover novel therapeutic targets and improve patient outcomes. 

Our main strategy involves functional screens using gene knock-down and fungal extract libraries to identify new candidate molecules to treat for glioblastoma patients. We integrate in silico data from high-throughput -OMICS technologies to our functional screen results to shed light on how to achieve better patient stratification and we design combinatorial treatments to optimize current treatment efficacy. More recently, our team has also developed a single-cell strategy to assess drug penetration in the brain and has begun exploring nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems to improve therapeutic efficiency.