Osama Al Dalahmah
Columbia University, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Glioblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor, almost always returns after surgery and treatment. Patients typically survive 12–15 months.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Neuroscience
Biophysics
- Topics
glioblastoma
brain tumor
cancer biology
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Define how nuclear mechano-transduction, the transmission of tissue-stiffness forces to the nucleus, correlates with glioblastoma transcriptional states across the tumor core and edge in human brain tissue.
- Quantify how brain location, and therefore tissue stiffness, shapes tumor gene-expression states using mouse xenografts of patient-derived glioblastoma cells.
- Raise or lower Lamin A/C, a nuclear structural protein, in human glioblastoma cells and measure resulting changes in tumor states, survival and pathology in mice, using Lamin mutants and a KASH construct as controls.
- Monitor nuclear force signaling in tumors with a YAP1 reporter to link mechano-transduction activity to treatment-resistant mesenchymal-like states.
More about the research
Tumor cells exist in different 'transcriptional states', sets of active genes that affect how they respond to therapy. What controls these states is poorly understood. This project asks whether physical forces, such as how stiff the surrounding brain tissue is, help switch them.
Why it matters
Glioblastoma escapes treatment partly because its cells spread through brain tissue of varying stiffness. Showing how physical force on the nucleus shapes tumor gene programs could reveal new mechanisms to target. This could guide future therapies for patients with this deadly brain cancer.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Daniel Brat
Northwestern University, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether the spatial arrangement of tumor-associated macrophages alongside hypoxic glioma cells in the peri-necrotic niche sustains immune suppression, using an RCAS/tv-a mouse model to follow microenvironment changes after necrosis in real time.
Atique Ahmed
Northwestern University, IL·Medicine & Clinical Research
Run a Phase 1/1b trial of mycophenolate mofetil, an IMPDH2-blocking transplant drug, combined with temozolomide and radiation in newly diagnosed glioblastoma, to set the maximum tolerated dose and assess safety.
Hunter Underhill
University of Utah, UT·Medicine & Clinical Research
Reduce errors from next-generation sequencing so that very rare tumor DNA variants can be detected in blood plasma from glioblastoma patients.
The school
Columbia University: 89 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
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