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 medical research on brain cancer.
Since coming to UD, Galileo has around 30 undergraduate senior thesis students, including the two currently in his lab, as well as multiple Masters and PhD students. Most undergraduate mentees go on to medical school, and it is important that they have participated in real research and have learned to appreciate what researchers do, even if they do not participate in research after they graduate from medical school. Many students do participate in research during and after graduating from medical school, and some become physician scientists.
How your support makes a difference!
Your gift will greatly facilitate the ability of undergraduate students to be involved in brain cancer research. Thank you for supporting this important research and our student researchers.
