Projects we fund

Project overview

The genes that make up the childhood form of the brain tumour known as glioblastoma have recently been identified, but how they drive the formation and growth of the tumour is not yet understood. A team of doctors from Canada, Sweden, London and Edinburgh is collaborating to look at how these genes function, and why they’re only found in certain regions of a child’s nervous system. In this pioneering project, state-of-the-art tools will be used to engineer the genetic defects directly into lab grown versions of the brain cells from which the tumours are thought to arise. This will enable the team to study the behaviour of the genes, and provide important insights into new approaches to treatment.

What difference will this project make?

This project will generate vital new information about childhood glioblastoma, which is a particularly difficult to treat brain tumour. The international team will define whether newly identified genetic mutations represent critical therapeutic targets, and will create a set of extremely valuable cell lines that will be shared with other researchers around the world. They’re focusing on a gene called H3F3A, which is frequently mutated in this form of the disease. It isn’t clear whether these mutations have an essential role in maintaining growth of tumours, or whether they’re only important during the earliest stages of tumour development. Experiments will be carried out to see whether reversing the H3F3A mutation represents a new treatment approach. The team will also look at the effect of introducing the mutation to cells from different parts of the brain, and this will determine whether tumours in different parts of the brain are truly different diseases. This work will enhance our understanding of childhood glioblastoma, generate information about its development and provide important insights into new treatment approaches. Importantly, throughout the course of the project, the team will create new cellular models of the disease that will be shared with other researchers.