Electroporation for targeted ablation of tumors

CTE faculty members Drs. Verbridge and Davalos are currently working to understand cell-specific responses to High Frequency Irreversible Electroporation (HFIRE) pulses, in order to ultimately translate this technique for the targeted ablation of malignant cells in glioma. PhD students primarily working on this project are Jill Ivey in the Verbridge lab and Eduardo Latouche in the Davalos lab, who have thus far demonstrated tumor cell-specific targeting in 3D tissue-engineered tumor co-culture models (see figure, adapted from Ivey, Latouche et. al., Scientific Reports, 2015). This project is ongoing, and current efforts are to understand specific death mechanisms resulting from HFIRE and the potential for enhancing these death responses, as well as the response of primary patient-derived cell types, including glioma stem cells (GSCs).