The Etiology and Progression of Brain Tumors

The main goal of the study is to present a framework, which integrates DNA, RNA and tissue data to identify and prioritize genetic events that represent clinically relevant new therapeutic targets and prognostic biomarkers for different kinds of brain tumors. The investigators study the regulation of neoplastic cell growth by oncogenes, tumor-suppressor and other cancer related genes using modern molecular genetic methods, such as chromogenic-in-situ hybridization, comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), array-CGH, cDNA microarray etc. In these studies the investigators utilize disease-specific tissue microarrays (TMA) which the investigators have constructed since 1999. Until now up to 3000 different brain tumours have been sampled to our TMA:s. These permit high-volume simultaneous analysis of molecular targets at the DNA, mRNA and protein levels. Research group has also focused its interest on the neoplastic development of gliomas, particularly on their hereditary and environmental factors.