IJMS Webinar | Glioblastoma Intratumoral Heterogeneity and Plasticity

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), Intratumour Heterogeneity and Plasticity, Glioblastoma Biology and Treatment

Webinar Information

1st Webinar of International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Glioblastoma Intratumoral Heterogeneity and Plasticity

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive type of brain cancer with a 5-year relative survival (4.6% only at 5 years) that has remained stable over the last 3 decades. Intratumour heterogeneity is a key feature that makes GBM one of the most deadly types of tumours, which results from the capacity of GBM-cancer stem cells to inter-convert between different cancer cell populations in response to changes in the tumour microenvironment and/or different drug treatments. This not only explains the poor performance in single drug therapy in GBM, but also reveals a key role for GBM plasticity, the interaction of GBM and the microenvironment and brain cancer progression, and thus constitutes a novel paradigms that needs to be addressed in order to find better treatments for patients with GBM.
This webinar features three glioblastoma experts covering researches into molecular level of the functional role of heterogeneity and plasticity in glioblastoma biology and treatment.

Dr. Guillermo Gomez
Centre for Cancer Biology,
SA Pathology and University of South Australia,
Adelaide, Australia

Date: 20 May 2021

Time: 9:00 am ACST | 1:30 am CEST

Webinar ID: 879 2818 4938

Webinar Secretariat: ijms.webinar@mdpi.com

Chair: Dr. Guillermo Gomez

The following experts will present and talk:

Dr. Guillermo Gomez, SA Pathology and University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

Dr. Guillermo Gomez leads an unique cross-disciplinary team that combines organoid biology, mechanobiology, microscopy, single-cell transcriptomics, clinical oncology and artificial intelligence to precisely map the different contributions of the tumour microenvironment on glioma stem cell differentiation, proliferation and invasion.
His research has led to the development and establishment of a new organoid that permits, for the first time, high-throughput growth and high-resolution imaging of patient-derived glioblastoma organoids; the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for the analysis of brain cancer pathology slides to identify different genetic signatures and molecular targets in different tumour regions, and the characterization of patient-derived glioblastoma tissue samples using single cell RNAseq to map different transcriptional programs that occur in malignant and non-malignant cells and how these contribute to glioma progression.
Dr Gomez has >40 publications in the last 6 years including first/senior/corresponding author articles in Nature Cell Biology (2015), Developmental Cell (2015, 2016, 2018, 2020), Nature Communications (2015, 2016, 2016, 2017,), Molecular Biology of the Cell (2015, 2016, 2017,2020) and PLoS Computational Biology (2017), Journal of Clinical Investigation (2018). Career-wide he has authored 70 research publications that together have been cited >3,200 times (h-index = 32, Google Scholar).

Ms. Maria Jose Gattas, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Maria Jose Gattas holds a degree in Biological Sciences from the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. In the present she is pursuing her last year of her PhD at the National University of San Martín, working at the Institute of Nanosystems under the direction of Dr. Marina Simián. Her doctoral project is based on the research for new therapies for glioblastoma multiforme based on nanotechnology. The main target of this project is tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs), which have significant relevance in these types of tumours. One of the principal aims of the doctoral work is to target TAMs with specific peptides attached to nanoparticles loaded with drugs or genetic material to help reprogram them. In this work, she tells us how she put together an in vitro model to study the interaction of macrophages with glioblastoma cells in both 2D and 3D cultures.

Prof. Dr. Bryan Day, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia

Prof. Day is the Group Leader of the Sid Faithfull Brain Cancer Laboratory at QIMR Berghofer MRI and an internationally recognised expert in brain cancer. He is Co-Director of The Centre for Child and Adolescent Brain Cancer Research (CCABCR), a national initiative to improve outcomes for children with brain cancer. The focus of his laboratory's research is to better understand the molecular mechanisms which drive the most common and aggressive forms of both adult and paediatric brain cancers. Prof Day is a past ASMR Director and sits on the scientific advisory committee for the Co-Operative Trials Group for Neuro-Oncology (COGNO) and the steering committee for Brain Cancer Biobanking Australian (BCBA).
Among Prof Day’s achievements is the characterisation of the receptor EphA3 as a therapeutic target in GBM (Day et al 2013, Cancer Cell, Cit 163). This research has led to clinical testing of a novel EphA3 targeting therapeutic antibody in patients with recurrent brain cancer. Another major achievement has been the development of a brain tumour and cell culture bank at QIMR Berghofer which has collected >350 tumour specimens to date. From this resource >60 primary cell lines have been generated which are the basis of his group's research and collaborative researchers around the world.

Program

Speaker/Presentation	Time in ACST
Dr. Guillermo Gomez Chair Introduction Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Understand Intratumour Heterogeneity in Glioblastoma	9:00 – 9:30 am
Ms. Maria Jose Gattas A Heterotypic Tridimensional Model to Study the Interaction of Macrophages and Glioblastoma In Vitro	9:30 – 10:00 am
Prof. Dr. Bryan Day Defining Effective Therapeutic Targets for the Treatment of Aggressive Brain Cancer	10:00 – 10:30 am
Q&A Session	10:30 – 10:50 am
Closing of Webinar Dr. Guillermo Gomez	10:50 – 11:00 am

Webinar Content

On Thursday 20 May 2021, MDPI and the International Journal of Molecular Sciences organized their first webinar, entitled "Glioblastoma Intratumoral Heterogeneity and Plasticity".

The introduction was held by the Chair of the webinar, Dr. Guillermo Gomez from SA Pathology and University of South Australia. Dr. Gomez leads an unique cross-disciplinary team that combines organoid biology, mechanobiology, microscopy, single-cell transcriptomics, clinical oncology and artificial intelligence to precisely map the different contributions of the tumour microenvironment on glioma stem cell differentiation, proliferation and invasion. Guillermo also gave the first presentation of the webinar entitled “Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Understand Intratumour Heterogeneity in Glioblastoma”.

The second speaker was Ms. Maria Jose Gattas who is pursuing her last year of her PhD at the National University of San Martín, working at the Institute of Nanosystems under the direction of Dr. Marina Simián. Her doctoral project is based on the research for new therapies for glioblastoma multiforme based on nanotechnology. Her topic was about “A Heterotypic Tridimensional Model to Study the Interaction of Macrophages and Glioblastoma In Vitro”.

The third and last presentation with the title "Defining Effective Therapeutic Targets for the Treatment of Aggressive Brain Cancer" was held by Prof. Dr. Bryan Day, Group Leader of the Sid Faithfull Brain Cancer Laboratory at QIMR Berghofer MRI and an internationally recognised expert in brain cancer. The focus of his laboratory's research is to better understand the molecular mechanisms which drive the most common and aggressive forms of both adult and paediatric brain cancers.

The presentations were followed by a Q&A and a discussion, moderated by the Chair. The webinar was offered via Zoom and required registration to attend. The full recording can be found here on Sciforum website. In order to stay updated on the next webinars on IJMS, be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking on “Subscribe” at the top of the page.

Relevant Special Issues

Novel Therapeutic Treatments to Target Glioblastoma Intratumoral Heterogeneity and Plasticity
Guest Editor: Dr. Guillermo Gomez
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2021