Survival from malignant pediatric brain tumors has not dramatically improved over the past 15 years. Among the major obstacles to the advancement of care is the inability to successfully model native brain tumor biology in the laboratory. This initiative overcomes this limitation in pediatric brain tumor research by creating a highly correlated bank of material and data that will provide: 1) native brain tumor tissue for genomic and proteomic analyses; 2) primary tumor cultures for genome wide RNA interference studies of tumor biology, and robotic screening of small molecule libraries for novel drug activities; and 3) primary intracranial xenografts for preclinical evaluations of novel drugs. All of this material will be banked and extensively annotated with clinical information on an ongoing basis. The tissue and all other resources derived from the facility are available to investigators at Washington University interested in research relevant to pediatric brain tumors. Initial studies included establishing primary tumor growth as xenografts in the brains of mice and using this material to examine the effect of individual genes on tumor growth through expression of lentiviral encoded interfering RNA with the RNAi library core (see Sheila Stewart) developed with Children’s Discovery Institute funding.

The Tumor Bank was extended and refunded through 2012. To date, the team has collected numerous tissue samples from pediatric brain tumors and has finished production of a complex Neuro-Oncology clinical database. In addition, during 2010, a Neuro-psychiatric database will be completed, to provide important information on the psychological and social effects of treatment for brain tumors.