1. BIOL 3095 September 2, 2011.
Seminar Reflection #1: “Cancer stem cells in the brain tumors”.
By: Angélica M. González Sánchez Student number: 804-11-3354
On Thursday, August 25, 2011 I attended a seminar given by the MD/PhD student Mr.
Jessian Muñoz on which he presented us numerous topics from his expertise areas. First of all,
he talked about his university: New Jersey Medical School. Then, he started off explaining
several concepts of the main topic, which was the detection of stem cells in glioblastoma
multiforme (GBM), the most common and aggressive tumor of the brain. Initially, the speaker
explained us all about stem cells and about the brain’s structure. He told us that, in the brain, as
in any other organ, there are stem cells and there’s also the probability of development of
tumors, such as glioblastoma multiforme. It has been found that there are about 0.2% of stem-
like cells in these tumors, which are radio and chemo resistant and have special pathways which
lead to their long survival. These “cancer stem cells” are probably responsible for metastasis and
for the reappearance of brain tumors. The studies on this subject have mostly been done in vitro
with human brain tumors or with mouse models. These studies are important because they will
allow targeting cancer stem cells and can improve treatment for GBM by stopping the specific
cancer stem cells pathways. This will either kill these cells or turn them into normal cells which
are susceptible to radio and chemotherapy.
In my opinion, this seminar was very didactic because it taught me a lot of new concepts
and helped me to understand them deeply. I would recommend it because it encourages research
by showing its scope and importance in the development of science.