Description
The goals of this research are three-fold: (i) One is to identify genetic changes associated with tumorgenesis that interfere with the ability of transformed glial cells to differentiate. This is connected with (ii) our analysis of the regulation of differentiation in normal glial progentor cells, as only by understanding this in normal cells can we understand what is occurring when differentiation fails in transformed versions of the same cells. (iii) The third is to identify the molecular basis for the greater resistance of transformed glial progenitor cells to chemotherapeutic agents as compared with normal glial progenitor cells. Thus, analysis of the populations provided will yield data crucial to two of our central areas of research, as awarded by NINDS in "Oligodendrocytes & precursors: toxicity of chemotherapy" (5R01NS044701), and "Low-level toxicant perturbation of neural cell function" (1R01ES012708).