Brain Tumor Cell Biology

The Kornblum lab is one of the original discoverers of stem cell like cells in brain cancer (Hemmati et al, PNAS). The lab has gone on to identify mechanisms by which these cells resist therapies and propagate tumors. Recent studies have been directed at using single cell technology to identify the molecular pathways driving brain cancer cells in patients and how these molecular pathways differ between patients (Alvarado et al., Cancer Research Communications) and in different areas of tumors (Patel et al., Biorxiv). The lab has developed a bank of patient-derived cells that are used throughout the world in the study of brain tumors.