No 20/ October 19, 2005
Renowned U.S. Award for Dr. Rainer Glass and Dr. Michael Synowitz
Renowned U.S. award for brain researcher Dr. Rainer Glass (l.) from the Max Delbrück Center and the neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Synowitz (r.) from the Helios Clinics Berlin-Buch (Photo: Thomas Oberländer/Helios Clinics Berlin-Buch)
For their discovery that endogenous neural precursor cells are
apparently able to destroy glioblastomas, the brain researcher Dr. Rainer Glass
(Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch) and the
neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Synowitz (Helios Clinics Berlin-Buch) have been
awarded the Young Investigator Award by the Section on Tumors of the American
Brain Tumor Association. Dr. Synowitz accepted the prize of $2,000 on behalf of
both researchers at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Congress of Neurological
Surgeons in
Glioblastomas are among the most common and most malignant brain tumors usually affecting people in their mid-fifties or early sixties. The causes of such tumors are unknown. Researchers assume that misdirected stem cells (neural precursor cells) induce glioblastomas. However, Dr. Rainer Glass and Dr. Michael Synowitz have now discovered that endogenous neural precursor cells also are able to destroy glioblastomas. Together with Professor Helmut Kettenmann (MDC) and Dr. Gerd Kempermann (MDC/Charité University Medical School Berlin), they detected neural precursor cells that destroy the tumor in transgenic mice. Apparently, the tumor itself attracts these stem cells from the germinal centers (stem cell niches) of the brain over long pathways but the exact mechanisms remain unclear. The researchers interpreted this result as a first indication that, at least in young animals, the brain has protective mechanisms against glioblastomas. This could also explain why in humans this tumor tends to occur only in older people but not in children and adolescents. The researchers injected neural precursors into older mice with glioblastoma, and results showed that they reacted like younger mice: i.e., the animals survived the tumors as long as young animals. The specific substance that attracts the neural precursor cells to the tumor and the process by which these stem cells impact it remain to be investigated.
Barbara Bachtler
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