Seeing brain tumors through a neuroscience lens

For centuries, scientists and physicians believed the nervous system was an innocent bystander as brain tumors grew and progressed.

Cancer researchers now recognize that’s not the case.

“Brain cancer cells not only grow like other cancers, but they also interact with all the other cell types in the brain,” said Qi Ye, assistant professor in Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. “They can hijack their systems, using them to promote the tumor’s progression.”

Ye is part of an emerging field that studies brain cancers through a neuroscience lens, with the hope of disrupting the process and discovering powerful new treatments for primary brain tumors called gliomas.

While much of the field has focused on the interaction between tumors and neurons, Ye investigates the role of another large group of brain cells, called glial cells, especially a star-shaped type called astrocytes. They support brain development by protecting and repairing nerve cells, but they, too, can be commandeered by tumors for their own growth.

“The role of astrocytes has been studied for many years during normal brain function, as well as after stroke and traumatic brain injury,” Ye said. “But relatively little is known about astrocytes in glioma, although it's still a very abundant population of cells in the brain, and it does interact with glioma cells and regulate the tumor microenvironment.”

Ye’s lab at the institute's Cancer Research Center in Washington, D.C., uses advanced mouse glioma models, multi-omics technologies, cross-species data analysis, and high-resolution imaging to investigate how tumor-associated astrocytes regulate blood vessel function and lipid metabolism within the tumor environment.

Ye’s previous research examined the relationship between ischemic stroke and glioma tumor progression, demonstrating that having a stroke increases proliferation and infiltration of cancer cells in regions of the brain affected by the stroke.

“We are building a center of world-class cancer researchers motivated by both scientific discovery and working collaboratively on a problem that matters,” said Christopher Hourigan, professor and director of the institute's Cancer Research Center — D.C.  “Dr. Ye exemplifies the kind of team leader we want — a brilliant scientist, but also someone who lives the ‘work hard and be nice to people’ philosophy so important for driving real progress.”

Ye said being part of the research institute and the D.C. center, with its collaborative nature and connection to Children’s National Hospital, are a great fit.

“Growing together with the developing environments is the most rewarding experience of my career and is really shaping who I am professionally,” Ye said. “The FBRI Cancer Research Center — D.C. is clearly a growing hub with outstanding people, and it feels like the perfect place for me to continue learning and growing in this next chapter.”

It’s important to work in an academic environment, said Ye, who also holds an appointment in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology.

“I can only do so much as a scientist on my own,” she said. The opportunity to have bright, motivated Virginia Tech students work with me in the lab is exciting. As a mentor, if I can train 10 to 20 like me, then together we can turn the incurable into curable.”