Congratulations to Dr Dirk Sieger and his lab (Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences) on being awarded a prestigious Cancer Research UK Programme Foundation Award to continue their work on the role of microglia during glioma growth. This Award provides funding for the coming 6 years (£ 1.288,000) and will allow the Sieger lab to study how microglia contribute to network formation in glioma. High grade gliomas represent a complex and devastating disease. Recent studies show that glioma cells make neural network-like connections with one another and with healthy neurons. This results in the formation of a functional network providing the tumour with a growth advantage and resistance to therapy. Interestingly, these functional tumour networks resemble features of neural networks that are formed during development. The Sieger lab will test the hypothesis that glioma cells repurpose developmental functions of microglia to promote outgrowth, connectivity and maturation of functional glioma networks. To address this hypothesis, they will combine state of the art imaging with the development of sophisticated single cell sequencing techniques. Further information Dr Siegers staff profile View Dr Sieger's blog post on the Cancer Research UK website: Zebrafish reveal brain tumours’ secret ally Publication date 02 Feb, 2022
