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Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive form of adult brain cancer and is a strategic priority for the CRUK-UCL Centre. Recurrent genetic and epigenetic perturbations in glioma have now been fully catalogued, but research has been hampered by a lack of open-access and well annotated patient-derived preclinical models. These will be vital to identify critical therapeutic targets and for use in drug discovery and development.
Cancer Research UK has recently invested £3.4 million into Edinburgh University and UCL to enable the generation of these missing research tools and data. Patient-derived glioblastoma cell lines, as well as normal control neural stem cell lines, can be routinely derived in the laboratory and are readily manipulated using CRISPR-based genome editing.
Scientists at both universities are generating a comprehensive collection of glioblastoma cell lines, control human neural stem cell lines and engineered cell lines with sophisticated genetic and epigenetic disruptions, as well as knock in reporters for live cell/tumour imaging. These cell lines and their associated deep molecular annotation (epigenome, transciptome and genome) are available to the global research community through the integrated, open-access GCGR webportal.
The GCGR will provide the much needed tools to accelerate innovative new science, stimulate UK and international collaborations and support discovery of new therapeutics for glioblastoma.