The overarching theme of our research program is the dissection of the role of proteins and networks (master regulators) that drive phenotypic states in normal and cancer cells of the brain. We use global and unbiased approaches to identify the genetic and transcriptional drivers of an obscure but incredibly important aberrant phenotype in brain tumors, the mesenchymal transformation of human high-grade glioma. This phenotype endows one of the most lethal types of human cancer (the glioblastoma multiforme, GBM) with extremely aggressive features such as the ability to invade the normal brain and form new blood vessels.
In recent work we have identified and validated two transcription factors (Stat3 and C/EBP-beta) that, on their own, are necessary and sufficient to maintain the mesenchymal signature of high-grade glioma.