Source: Robin Hindery, UCSF Science Cafe
September 24, 2009

UCSF Stem Cell Investigator Awarded Funding for Brain Cancer Research

UCSF neurosurgeon and stem cell researcher Daniel Lim, MD, PhD, has been awarded $600,000 to study how neural stem cells can become cancerous and maintain their lethal characteristics as they divide and spread.

Lim, an assistant professor and director of restorative neurosurgery in the Department of Neurological Surgery and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, is one of four recipients of this year's Sontag Foundation Distinguished Scientist Award, which supports early career scientists conducting "inspiring, potential-laden brain cancer research," according to the foundation's website.

Lim's research will focus on gliomas, an aggressive form of brain cancer that can grow very rapidly and migrate extensively, killing healthy nerve cells as the tumor expands in size.

Cancer was once believed to be caused solely by mutations to DNA, the cell's genetic material. However, it is increasingly apparent that epigenetic changes -- non-DNA-based, inherited forms of gene expression -- also play a critical role in tumor development and progression, Lim said.

Lim plans to investigate how glioma cells might use certain epigenetic mechanisms to "remember" their malignant properties as the cancer progresses.

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