Nerve stem cells have the amazing ability to produce an enormous number of new nerve cells. However, they can also become abnormal, lose control and churn out cancer cells resulting in a deadly brain tumor.
Background
One of the goals of regenerative medicine is to treat damaged brain tissue (for example after a stroke) using stem cell transplantation. Normal stem cells produce the right number of healthy nerve cells. However, if they become abnormal, stem cells create uncontrolled numbers of new cells and a tumor develops. This is especially devastating if such cancer cells form in the brain because they are difficult to access and brain damage cannot be reversed. Before stem cells can be used to treat brain damage, it is vital to understand why nerve stem cells suddenly start growing out of control.
Aim
The research group will initially investigate these mechanisms in the fruit fly, one of the work horses of stem cell biology.
With the fruit fly, several proven techniques already exist to investigate how nerve stem cells generate in a controlled way the right number of nerve cells in the brain. Various factors involved in this process are already known. In addition, the researchers will examine the fruit fly’s roughly 18,000 genes to see which ones are involved in this mechanism.
They will then pursue the most promising gene candidates from this investigation. The next step will be to turn from the fly model to the mouse model. The researchers will investigate whether comparable genes in the mouse play a similar function in generating brain tumors in mammals.
Significance
The basic mechanisms behind the development of some illnesses are similar in humans and animals. This research project should help to develop new strategies in stem cell therapy to prevent brain tumors.
Original title: From stem cell to brain tumor: a genetic analysis (D-A-CH/LAV)
Grant: CHF 274‘678.-
Duration: 36 months
Project leader
- Prof. Heinrich Reichert, Biozentrum, Universität Basel
- Prof. Jürgen Knoblich, Institut für molekulare Biotechnologie, Wien, A