Guest Editors
Chiara Bastiancich
Aix-Marseille University, Institute of NeuroPhysiopathology, Gliomagenesis & Microenvironment
Chiara obtained a double PhD degree in pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences in 2018 (UCLouvain - University of Angers, Erasmus Mundus NanoFar program). Since then, she is a postdoctoral fellow at the Gliomagenesis and MicroEnvironment research group (Aix Marseille University, France). Chiara’s research focus is the development of drug-loaded nano-sized delivery systems as potential solutions for the treatment of malignant brain tumors. In particular, she is interested in developing innovative local treatments for administration in the tumor resection cavity to avoid the onset of tumor recurrences. She works on several preclinical models (in vitro, ex vivo, in vivo) both to elucidate the tumor microenvironment of resected tumors to identify therapeutic targets and to evaluate the efficacy and safety of her drug delivery systems.
Aurèlie Souberan
Aix-Marseille University, Institute of NeuroPhysiopathology, Gliomagenesis & Microenvironment
Dr. Aurélie Soubéran is a research engineer in the “Gliomagenesis and microenvironment team” from the Institute of Neurophysiopathology at the University of Aix-Marseille, France. Aurélie holds a PhD in human pathology, specializing in oncology, from the University of Aix-Marseille, France. During her thesis, she examined the role of inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) and SMAC mimetics in glioblastoma stem-like cells. After her graduation, she joined the Institute of Neurosciences of Timone where she studied the impact of anti-angiogenic treatment on immune-landscape in a glioblastoma mouse model. She is now a research engineer and she is developing in vitro pre-clinical models of glioblastoma, such as neurospheres, explants, and tumoroids.
Collection Overview
Aggressive brain tumors such as glioblastomas (GBM) are characterized by high heterogeneity, infiltrative capacity, a unique (immune-)environment, and great drug delivery challenges. Even though much progress has been made to unravel the microenvironment of gliomas and the mechanisms of crosstalk between cell populations co-existing within the tumor, we are still far from reaching a cure for GBM. Most drug candidates showing therapeutic activity in pre-clinical studies in the last two decades failed to consistently show responses in patients. This limited transfer to the clinics can be partially attributed to the inability of current preclinical models to properly mimic the complexity of human brain tumors. Similar challenges are encountered for the study and drug delivery of other central nervous system (CNS) disorders.
Therefore, the development of clinically relevant in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo models remains a necessity toward the identification of new therapeutic targets in the CNS and the development of therapies with high translational potential. The proposed collection aims at assembling original articles describing the development of adapted, reproducible, and highly standardized experimental models as preclinical tools to investigate the brain microenvironment or the response to treatments for CNS diseases.
