SYNGN - developing personalised cancer therapy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Utilisation of syngeneic glioblastoma and patient-specific neural stem cells (SYNGN) for the development of personalised cancer therapy
IRAS ID
332454
Contact name
Silvia Marino
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen Mary University of London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Centre of Excellence, Brain Tumour Research; MGU0447, Barts Charity
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Glioblastoma is the most common intrinsic brain tumours in adults. It is resistant to conventional treatments and has a very poor prognosis. Survival of glioblastoma patients has not improved over the last 20 years, a rare exception to the general trend of cancer survival in the UK, due to the heterogeneity of the tumour cells, the limited accessibility of drugs to the brain, and glioblastoma’s infiltrative growth pattern. Harnessing state-of-the-art stem cell technologies and next generation sequencing methods, we have developed a novel experimental pipeline to compare the molecular make up of glioblastoma cells with normal neural stem cells(NSCs) from the same patient. This allows us to identify crucial differences between glioblastoma and NSCs on a patient-specific basis and has the potential to provide essential therapeutic contrast to define disease- and patient-specific biomarkers of drug response.
Proof of the concept has been performed, we now want to generate further data on a clinical timeframe, which would allow these matched drugs to be trialed in glioblastoma patients for personalised therapy in the future. Our proposal addresses one of the recognised major obstacles in glioblastoma research, and the experiments we propose provide a co-ordinated approach for the identification of novel targets/compounds to develop personalised therapy for glioblastoma.
Adults patients with glioblastoma will be recruited to the study at presentation. Specimens will be obtained during routine surgical procedures undertaken as part of the current diagnostic process at the Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust. After diagnosis, surplus tumour tissue will be cultured to derive brain tumour stem cells, and matching NSCs will be derived from dura/blood, which are therefore genetically matched to the glioblastoma cell cultures (syngeneic). The glioblastoma cells and matched NSCs will then be compared to identify personalised targets for treatment.
Funding in place from Brain Tumour Research, CRUK and Barts Charity.REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/LO/0053
Date of REC Opinion
12 Mar 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion