Development of Permanent Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma Cell Lines for Preclinical Trails

This study at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, led by principal investigator Dr. Kwong-Kwok Wong, will investigate different methods to immortalize JPA primary cells which have limited growth potential. Cell culture method will involve the expressing of telomerase gene into JPA primary cells with limited growth potential. Over-expression of telomerase has previously shown to increase the life span of human cells. Additionally, researchers will attempt to inject fresh JPA tumor tissue into SCID mice which are severely immunodeficient to investigate whether JPA tumor cells can be propagated inside the brain of the SCID mice. The successful development of these resources will allow researchers to perform various pre-clinical trials of various therapeutic strategies in the future. We recognize the Brain Tumor Society (BTS) Boston for their support on this project.

Funded in 2012.