Project Summary: Mischel & Cloughesy

Project Title: Development and implementation of novel molecular diagnostic tools to guide combination therapy for malignant glioma patients.

Paul Mischel, MD, Tim Cloughesy, MD

• Cells within an individual glioma patient’s tumor may differ in the set of molecular alterations (i.e., tumor molecular heterogeneity). Furthermore, gliomas are remarkably adept at “rewiring” their circuitry in the face of targeted treatment, leading to rapid clinical resistance.
• The Mischel/Cloughesy lab hypothesizes that it is necessary to understand the signaling networks of multiple different components within a tumor in order to identify the most efficacious combination of targeted therapies for an individual patient with malignant glioma.
• Investigators propose to develop new ex-vivo tumor tissue- and serum-based molecular diagnostic approaches and test their utility as tools to guide the selection of and/or response to combination therapy.