Aparna Bhaduri, Ph.D.

Research

The Bhaduri lab studies glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer that is extremely resistant to treatment and often lethal. Various stem cells can give rise to glioblastoma. The diversity within these stem cells may provide multiple routes for glioblastoma to become resistant to treatment. Because glioblastoma stem cell populations include developmental cell types that are rare or absent in rodents, I aim to investigate the role of stem cell diversity in human glioblastoma. I will use a novel organoid transplantation model—which are models of the human cortex grown in a dish—paired with approaches that enable experimental exploration of the single-cell lineages of human tumors. I will determine which populations give rise to each cell type observed within a tumor and then characterize the ways in which diverse populations promote resistance to treatment. These studies will establish roles for diverse stem cell populations in patient tumors and set the stage for future work to develop treatment paradigms targeting the relevant cell types.