Brain Tumour Research Centre
Lead: Professor Silvia Marino
We are a multidisciplinary research group composed of basic scientists and clinical researchers with the common aim to apply knowledge of basic stem cell biology to advance our understanding of brain tumours.
We study epigenetic mechanisms regulating the biology of normal and neoplastic stem cells, in particular we are investigating the role of deregulated self-renewal mechanisms in initiation and progression of brain tumours.
Professor Marino leads a research programme in the epigenetic regulation of stem cell function during CNS development and brain tumour formation.
The group focuses on glioblastoma (GBM) and on medulloblastoma (MB), the most common malignant brain tumours in adults and children respectively. The aim of the research is to increase our understanding of the cells within the brain from which these tumours originate and to characterise key deregulated epigenetic mechanisms driving their growth.
In GBM, the team has established a novel experimental pipeline which allows for the first time to compare GBM stem cells to their normal counterpart -the neural stem cells- isolated from the same patient. The aim is to uncover patient-specific changes which will advance the clinical evaluation of each individual patient and lead to better and more specific drugs.
In MB, the Marino group is studying the role of chromatin modifiers, such as the Polycomb group (PcG) genes, in the development of the tumour and how these genes can be targeted therapeutically in the tumour cells without affecting the normal cells at a crucial stage of brain development in children.
Current projects in the lab are funded by Brain Tumour Research, Cancer Research UK, Barts Charity, Ali's Dream and NIHR.