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From bench to bedside and back again

The Purzners are neurosurgeon clinician scientists with a powerful background in brain tumour biology, drug development and product commercialization. First and foremost, their research program is founded on an unrelenting commitment to ensuring that the goals of the research performed in the lab reflect the unmet needs of patients with brain tumors and, similarly, that each interaction with human disease, inside the OR and out, should be viewed as an opportunity to guide the work of the lab.

Theme 1: Designing novel, targeted therapies that drive differentiation of brain tumour cells into benign neurons through harnessing, rather than fighting, cancer evolution

The goal of differentiation therapy is to transform malignant cancer cells into benign, post-mitotic cells that are unable to re-enter the cell cycle; in this case, neurons. Differentiation therapy provides many benefits when compared to traditional cancer therapies, which focus on inhibiting cell proliferation or promoting cell death. Most notably, differentiation therapy does not try to overcome the powerful pro-proliferative and pro-survival forces of cancer evolution, but rather works with the cancer cell’s fundamental identity to gently guide the cell towards it’s developmentally intended outcome: a benign neuron. 

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Surgery

Theme 2: Discovery of cellular and molecular features of glioblastoma recurrence and invasion

The focus of theme 2 is identifying drivers of early recurrence and invasion in glioblastoma (GB), the most common adult brain cancer. In this theme we bring glioblastoma tissue directly from the OR into the lab, to better understand how brain tumor tissue interacts with the normal surrounding brain, and how those interactions might predict brain tumor recurrence.

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