Graduate student, Anne C. Solga, MS, has been completing exciting new work on the role of the tumor microenvironment in dictating NF1-associated glioma growth. Ms. Solga, a graduate student in the laboratory of David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD, was chosen to showcase her studies at the 2014 American Association for Cancer Research Meeting in San Diego this week.
Immune system-like cells, called microglia, are one of the important cell types responsible for mediating the growth of NF1-associated optic gliomas in mice. Anne working with former post-doctoral fellow, Winnie Pong, PhD, employed RNA-sequencing to identify genes expressed in these glioma associated microglia. This discovery effort was performed in collaboration with Dr. Elaine R. Mardis and her team at the Genome Institute at Washington University.
Anne found new growth factors made by these microglia, which she is currently exploring in more detail. Her ongoing investigations are aimed at determining how these proteins control tumor growth as an initial step towards developing treatments that block their tumor-promoting activities.