Student: Bailey Gasvoda
Project Mentors: Dr. Christopher Plaisier – SBHSE
Dr. Shewtal Mehta – Barrow Neurological Institute
Dr. Jeffrey Kleim – ASU SBHSE
YouTube Link: View the video link below before joining the zoom meeting
Zoom Link: https://asu.zoom.us/j/95616825866
Zoom meeting time: 10am - noon
Abstract
Glioblastoma is considered the most aggressive and deadly form of cancer. Despite aggressive treatment with combination therapies, the average survival time for patients is 14.5 months. Treatments need to be improved to increase survival outcomes for the nearly 13,000 people diagnosed every year in the United States. The goal of this study was to understand how tumor cells change in response to radiation therapy, which may shed some light on potential targets for new therapies. Glioma stem cell lines were exposed to radiation and single cell RNA sequencing was conducted before irradiation (control) as well as 3 and 7 days after irradiation. The scRNA-seq data was filtered and scaled for noise and highly variable genes were identified. Cells were clustered according to cell cycle states, with the optimal number of clusters determined by marker genes and cluster significance. Relationships between individual cells in each cluster were measured and maximized with the element-centric clustering metric. Cell cycle clusters changed in response to radiation with the number of cells in each cell cycle shifting over time. The irradiation response cluster (IRC) displayed growth from a few cells in the control, to many cells by days 3 and 7. A number of significant marker genes were identified for each cluster. These marker genes can be experimentally validated and pursued as potential targets for new therapies, bringing glioblastoma patients one step closer to better outcomes.