The relationship between brain injury and brain tumor formation is unclear. To determine whether brain injury can result in the later development of a type of brain tumor, called a glioma, the research laboratories of two Washington University neurologists are joining forces. Dr. Terrance Kummer, an expert in traumatic brain injury and a clinical specialist in neurological critical care is working with Dr. David Gutmann and his postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Jit Chatterjee, to determine whether brain injury can induce glioma formation in mice.
Using mice genetically engineered with mutations in the neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) gene that causes the NF1 cancer predisposition syndrome, Kummer and Gutmann were recently funded to explore the hypothesis that injury creates a brain environment supportive of glioma development. Together, they hope to determine how changes in the brain allow tumors to form as a first step towards identifying promising new treatments to block glioma progression.