3D Models in Pediatric Cancers

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editors

Zoë Walters

University of Southampton

Dr Zoë Walters is a Lecturer in Translational Epigenomics within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton. Zoë gained a BSc in Molecular Genetics at the University of Sussex where she also obtained her PhD working on signal transduction mechanisms in the formation of the wing and leg structures in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. From there, she went to Cardiff University where she undertook research using the model organism Xenopus to uncover novel genes involved in Wnt signalling that might provide insights into tumorigenesis. Here she discovered a solute carrier involved in embryonic patterning in the frog that is linked to Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) signalling. In 2008, Zoë joined Prof. Janet Shipley’s team at the Institute of Cancer Research where she investigated novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS). In 2015 Zoë was awarded a Children with Cancer UK Fellowship to study the role of an epigenetic protein, EZH2, in RMS. Zoë’s research team at Southampton focuses on aberrant epigenetic mechanisms that contribute to the pathogenesis of diseases including cancer and developmental disorders, with a view to identifying novel treatments for these diseases. Her work utilises omic data and 3D models of soft tissue sarcomas and paediatric and oesophageal cancers to identify and test novel therapeutic avenues for treatment in these tumours.

Maria Vinci

Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital-Pediatric High-Grade Glioma Group

Dr Maria Vinci obtained her Master degree in Biology at the University of Bari, Italy, in 2002 and soon after she joined the laboratory of Professor Elisabetta Dejana, at IFOM in Milan, where she studied the role of junctional adhesion molecules in inflammation. In 2004 Maria moved to Mannheim, Germany, for her PhD studentship in Tumour Vascular Biology, at Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg, under the supervision of Professor Peter Vajkoczy. In 2008 she joined The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in Sutton, UK, as a PostDoc in the Tumour Biology and Metastasis team, led by Professor Sue Eccles, where she dedicated herself to the establishment of 3D tumour models to study in a more physiological manner the response to pharmacological treatments, in vitro. In 2012, still at the ICR, Maria moved to the Glioma team, led by Professor Chris Jones, where she started investigating some of the most aggressive pediatric brain tumours, glioblastomas (GBM) and diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG). Maria obtained specific funding to extend her research into the field of pGBM and DIPG, a field of research she is strongly committed and passionate about. Since 2017, Dr. Vinci is at the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, in Rome, Italy, where she leads the Pediatric High-Grade Glioma group, focusing her research on the cellular and molecular mechanisms driving the infiltrative growth of these tumours, and aiming to identify new therapeutic approaches to inhibit them. The establishment and application of 3D cancer models is at the centre of her research interests.

Collection Overview

Pediatric cancers, whilst relatively rare, are the most common cause of death in children. Recent advances in genomic technologies and drug discovery have led to novel therapeutic strategies for some types of pediatric cancer, but for others, the treatment options remain limited and prognosis poor. In order to develop and test new treatment strategies, there is a need for more accurate models of these cancers. However, tissue is extremely difficult to obtain and as such, generating patient-derived models can be extremely challenging. Traditional 2D cell-line cultures lack several aspects of 3D organization found in patient tumors. Recent advances in tissue culture technologies have led to the ability to utilize current cell line models and limited patient-derived material to generate more accurate, 3D models. This collection aims to showcase the recent advances in generating and manipulating 3D models of pediatric cancers, including tumor spheroids, organoids, ex vivo cultures, and organ-on-chip, as well as methods for image-analysis and phenotypic quantification. The overall goal is to advance our understanding of these tumors and establish the right tools to test novel therapeutic strategies with more predictive power.