Name: Valentina Lind (UCL MBPhD student and Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Hargrave Group, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health Unit of Functional Neurosurgery, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology)

Title: Defining Prognostic Human Brain Networks for High-Grade Glioma

Abstract: In animal models, high-grade gliomas exploit otherwise physiologic mechanisms of neuronal communication through bona-fide, electrophysiologically-functional neuron-to-glioma synapses and paracrine mechanisms to drive tumour growth and invasion in an activity-dependent manner. In this talk, I will describe the development of tumour network mapping to define prognostic human brain networks underlying high-grade glioma growth and invasion. Focusing on paediatric diffuse midline glioma and adult glioblastoma, I will present work interrogating the prognostic impact and biologic validity of defined networks using multimodal data, including ground-truth single-cell RNA-sequencing of primary patient tumour samples and intraoperative electrocorticography of tumour-infiltrated cortex. Together, this work establishes a translatable, circuit-level framework for understanding neuron-to-glioma interactions in the living human brain and for the development of future neuromodulation-based therapies for these devastating cancers.