High-grade gliomas form electrochemical synapses with surrounding healthy neurons. Gliomas sense active neuronal circuits and respond with proliferative growth. Gliomas make nervous tissue more hyper-excitable, forming a malignant feedback loop. Cancer Neuroscience aims to understand brain tumor biology through principles of neuroscience to develop novel treatments for these aggressive diseases.

The lab uses patient-derived high-grade glioma cell lines in both neuron-glioma organoid systems and xenograft animal models with behavioral perturbations and live calcium imaging to further understand these complex circuit dynamics.