Mehta Laboratory

About

During brain development, cell fate factors play an important role in the coordinated regulation of neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation. The recent discovery of a small sub-population of ‘stem-like’ cells in brain tumors has shed light on the overlapping mechanisms between normal brain development and brain malignancies. There is a general consensus in the field that the brain tumors are maintained by the cancer stem cell population that has the capability to self-renew and differentiate into multiple cell types of the brain. The same neurodevelopmental cell fate factors have been shown to play critical roles in the formation and progression of brain tumors. Our laboratory studies the role of lineage-specific factors in brain tumor formation, progression, and therapy resistance. We are particularly interested in transcription factors that govern cell fate decisions during early brain development and their role in cancer progression and response to treatment.