Research And Grants

Co-Culture Disruptor Screens to Target Cell-Cell Interactions in DMG

Diffuse midline glioma (DMG) is a malignant brain tumour arising in children representing a major unmet clinical need, with a 2-year survival rate close to zero. Existing treatments based upon targeting the genetic faults within the tumour cells have not yet produced any meaningful survival benefit, and so innovative solutions are required. We recently discovered DMG to be comprised of multiple distinct subpopulations of tumour cells that co-operate to grow, and spread throughout the brain. Having established a large number of examples of this phenomenon as model systems in our laboratory, we now want to test whether disrupting the way these cells interact could be a useful new treatment strategy, alone or in combination with other therapies. We will set up a unique drug screening platform to look specifically for compounds which affect the DMG subpopulations when grown together, and so specifically targeting the communication between them. This represents a completely new way of approaching DMG drug discovery, and may lead to new therapies to be tested in clinical trials.