V Scholar Archives - Page 62 of 62

Albert Wyrick Scholar

Gliomas are aggressive brain tumors. Gliomas are very heterogeneous, which is a big problem for treatment. Traditionally, researchers have profiled pieces of tumor with a lot of cells all mixed together, thus masking many information differences. To precisely define brain tumors, I propose to use single cell sequencing techniques directly in patient samples. My laboratory is a leader in these techniques and has shown the potential of these approaches in cancer. I thus propose to: (aim1) perform single cell analyses in brain tumors in adults and children. I also propose (aim2) to use our new data to identify novel ways to target specific programs in brain tumors. Our research will provide the community with a very detailed view of gliomas and suggest ways to improve the treatment of patients.

Abeloff V Scholar*

Funded by Louisville Friends of V

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is one of the most common and deadly childhood
cancers. Drugs that children are given often do not fully kill all of the leukemia cells.
A specialized cell, called a leukemia stem cell, preserves the leukemia through selfrenewal.
If one leukemia stem cell persists, the cancer can regrow and make a child
sick. Our goal is to find better ways to kill these cells so that we can cure patients.
One way that we do this is by studying leukemia stem cells in a zebrafish cancer
model, which is very similar to human disease. Here, we will use a new method to
find genes that are only expressed by leukemia stem cells. We will then look for
drugs that target these genes and can kill leukemia stem cells. The breakthroughs
that we make can be quickly applied to human disease because our studies are being
done in an animal model. Our research will give vital data about leukemia stem cells
and biology, and we hope we will discover new drugs to treat leukemia.