Tissue Collection for Drug Screening and Bioanalysis

The goal of this project is to enable the acquisition of tissue available for research with the prospect of enabling the development of new therapeutic avenues for patients diagnosed with cancer in the central nervous system.

During patients' (with a CNS tumor) routine operative procedure, if extra tissue deemed unnecessary for diagnostic or clinical purposes is available, selected samples will undergo DNA and/or RNA extraction and integrity analysis, whole genome and RNA sequencing, DNA and RNA methylome analyses, proteomic analysis, immunoprofiling, and primary culturing of the tumor cells. These cultures may then be used for drug screenings and to create patient-derived xenografts, or for comparisons between tumor and non-tumor patients. Other biological samples may be collected. Tissue collection for drug screening will be extended to post-mortem biospecimens such as whole brain, spinal cord, biofluids (e.g., cerebrospinal fluid and blood) and skin biopsy. These samples will be collected through autopsy donation from pediatric and adult brain tumor patients.

Additionally, saliva samples may be obtained from the parents of pediatric patients with CNS tumors, and biological samples may be collected from pediatric patients without a CNS tumor who are undergoing a neurological procedure. These samples may be used for comparison with samples from patients with CNS tumors.