Revealing the Ferroptotic Phenotype of Medulloblastoma

The ultimate goal of our research is to develop new therapeutics for pediatric cancers such as myoblastoma. For this purpose, our team develops new model systems highlighting the genetic background of the disease, as well as exploiting new therapeutic avenues. In the recent years, single cell genomics have revealed how impaired lineage commitment influences clinical outcome of pediatric cancers, as well as response to the treatments, and ultimately the development of treatment resistant cell populations within the tumor.

The spectrum of neural progenitor differentiated state appears to underlie the clinical outcome of pediatric cancer. Main challenges are to understand these highly plastic known or insufficiently progenitors within the tumors, as well as developing new therapeutic that are more efficient and less harmful for these diseases. From this standpoint, our research on ferroptosis appears extremely promising.

Iron dependence is one of the main vulnerabilities of cancer cells, also known as cancer stem cells, all the essential element. Iron is double-edged sword as its reaction with reactive oxygen species can lead to the specific type of cell death, which is called ferroptosis. Our data clearly showed that ferroptosis is a great potential against this type of cancer cells.