ESTABLISHING A PATIENT DERIVED ORGANOTYPIC SLICE CULTURE MODEL OF GLIOBLASTOMA MULTIFORME

Abstract

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumour and has a median survival of 15 months. Despite many years of research in the field, prognosis remains dismal, due in part to the majority of the research being performed using monolayer cell culture, which does not represent the complexity of GBM. To partly address this gap in research models, I have generated and utilized a viable patient derived organotypic slice culture model. I have utilized this model to validate genetic manipulation via lentiviral transduction by successfully delivering a far-red fluorescent marker. I further explored the feasibility of utilizing this model to understand patient derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) for the future use as a GBM biomarker in liquid biopsy. The establishment of this model will hopefully lead to insights in to GBM biology and how EVs further its malignancy.