Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive brain cancer for which there are currently no effective treatment options. While the majority of tumour cells may respond favourably to chemotherapy and/or radiation, there are populations of cells called "Glioma Stem Cells" (GSCs) that are highly resistant to all current therapies and cause tumour recurrence comprised entirely of treatment-resistant cells. With CIHR funding, the Porter Lab has developed a platform capable of dissecting the biology of individual patient GSCs before, during, and after treatment. They have discovered several proteins that control how these cells resist therapy and support a more aggressive, untreatable tumour. This project will dissect how these proteins function to support GSCs during the process of standard of care therapy, permitting the evolution of this dangerous population of cells. The goal of this work is to discover methods of stopping GSCs from driving recurrence of GBM and providing new hope for patients with this aggressive form of cancer. 

This work will provide essential discoveries needed to understand how GSCs continue to drive human glioma. Our team will address the clinical utility of select targeting of the cell cycle using patient-derived samples and pre-clinical models and will begin to stratify patient populations to ensure the best results for future clinical directions for this work.