ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Glioblastoma brain cancer remains incurable. This cancer aggressively invades the surrounding brain tissue, so surgery and other treatments practically never cure patients, who survive only about a year on average.  There also are glioblastoma 'stem cells' (GSCs) within the tumor that are resistant to treatment and believed to be responsible for regrowth of the tumor. Students in the laboratory of UD Professor Deni Galileo are trying to better understand the behavior of those invading GSCs and the factors that facilitate their aggressive invasion into brain tissue. Biomedical granting agencies that fund brain cancer research often are not interested in involving undergraduate students, and this provides a unique opportunity to fund undergraduates doing publishable medical research on brain cancer.

THE IMPACT OF YOUR SUPPORT 

Your gift will greatly facilitate the ability of undergraduate students to be involved in publishable brain cancer research. Since coming to UD, Galileo has mentored around 30 undergraduate senior thesis students, including the two currently in his lab, as well as multiple Masters and PhD students. All undergraduate mentees go on to either medical school, graduate school or biomedical industry, and their research experience at UD greatly increases their ability to conduct subsequent research or their appreciation of research, even if they do not participate in research as medical doctors. But many students who go to medical school do participate in research during and after graduating, and some become physician scientists. Thank you for supporting this important research and our student researchers.