Testing Novel Drugs and Developing Novel Models of Recurrent Disease to Find a Cure for Brain Cancer

Dr. Bryan Day, along with his collaborators, is responsible for the generation and characterisation of primary glioblastoma models, used in almost every brain cancer research laboratory within Australia, as well as several overseas.

Brain cancer models are used to validate discoveries in the laboratory and are absolutely essential for a discovery to progress to a clinical trial. The development of such models is therefore an important area of research that aims to build capacity and advance brain cancer discoveries across the globe.

Now, Dr. Day is undertaking a project to identify new drugs to combat glioblastoma. This project has a specific focus on understanding brain cancer recurrence, as Dr. Day aims to develop a unique library of paired primary and recurrent glioblastoma models. This resource will be invaluable, and is the culmination of more than eight years of consistent research and tumour banking efforts that will greatly inform further pre-clinical studies. 

This project has great importance for the research and brain cancer community. Almost all GBM patients suffer from disease recurrence, and in the majority of cases, the recurrent tumour is vastly different from the primary tumour that the patient was initially treated for. Often, the recurrent disease displays distinctly different patterns of gene expression and cells can exhibit chemo-radiotherapy resistance. This makes it significantly harder to treat, and as such, a greater focus is needed to study the recurrent disease, to make long lasting changes for patients.

Dr. Day and his collaborators understand the need for brain cancer models in research, and particularly the requirement for models of this recurrent disease. Therefore, Dr. Day has made these resources available to the research community to be used for pre-clinical discovery projects and investigations.