Investigating the Role of LIN28B in Mediating Stemness/Self-Renewal in Neuroblastoma

Background:

I will be studying a pediatric cancer called neuroblastoma. This is a very aggressive cancer of the developing nerves and when children are diagnosed with this disease, tumor cells are growing quickly and have often spread throughout their body. This makes it very challenging to treat. Dr. Maris' laboratory discovered that a gene called LIN28B helps to drive the aggressive behavior of neuroblastoma. Dr. Schnepp has worked closely with Dr. Maris to discover that LIN28B works with two other genes, called RAN and Aurora kinase A, to help neuroblastoma cells grow quickly.  LIN28B also plays a key role in regulating stem cells, which are cells that give rise to the different tissues that make up our bodies. Interestingly, it is thought that neuroblastoma has its own stem cells (called tumor initiating cells or TICs) and that these cells help make it very hard to treat.

Project Goal:

My project will focus on determining whether LIN28B helps promote these neuroblastoma TICs. I will study whether this might be the case by using different cellular and molecular techniques to eliminate or "knock out" LIN28B in neuroblastoma. This will be a very important tool and I will then compare how neuroblastoma TICs with LIN28B grow compared to those without LIN28B. I predict that LIN28B will help these neuroblastoma TICs grow more aggressively. If this is the case, then perhaps treatments or drugs that help inhibit the LIN28B pathway could provide better treatments for children with neuroblastoma.