A better approach, Monje said, would be to develop drugs that specifically block the tumor-stimulating activities of neuroligin-3, such as a drug that stops the protein from being secreted into the area around the cancer cells. Into the cerebral cortex of mice with these light-sensitive proteins, the team implanted cancer cells from a human pediatric cortical glioblastoma. Using light stimulation 
 
 To conduct the study, Monje’s team employed optogenetics, a Stanford-developed technique that uses genetic manipulation to insert light-sensitive proteins into specific neurons, allowing the neurons to be activated with the flip of a light switch. Other Stanford co-authors are postdoctoral scholars Erin Gibson, PhD, Yujie Tang, PhD and Jai Pollepalli, PhD; undergraduate student Alyssa Noll; MD/PhD students Surya Nagaraja and Christopher Mount; Siddhartha Mitra, PhD, a senior scientist at the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine; Pamelyn Woo, life science research assistant; Robert Malenka, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences; Hannes Vogel, MD, professor of pathology and of pediatrics; and Parag Mallick, PhD, assistant professor of radiology. The team performed follow-up experiments on slices of mouse brain to identify secreted factors that made the tumor cells proliferate. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research; the Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation; Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health; the Child Health Research Institute at Stanford; and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Endowed Faculty Scholarship in Pediatric Cancer and Blood Diseases.
– Thoughts can be deadly. So posits new research published this week in the journal Cell investigating the link between brain activity and tumor growth. Specifically, researchers at Stanford found that activity in the cerebral cortex promoted the growth of high-grade gliomas; they account for four out of every five malignant brain tumors, and a Stanford press release notes survival rates for those with the cancer have barely budged in the last three decades. To test the suspected link, the researchers implanted human glioma tumors into the brains of lab mice and then used light to increase brain-cell activity adjacent to those tumors. That increase did spur faster tumor growth, and the behavioral relationship—in which an organ's "primary function" fuels a tumor—is an unusual one. As lead author Michelle Monje puts it, "We don't think about ... breathing promoting the growth of lung cancer." Monje has spent more than a decade studying diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG, which exacts a cruel toll: It typically strikes around age 6, and it afflicts some 200 American kids each year; most are dead within nine months. (Earlier this month, the New Jersey Record shared the story of a family who donated 6-year-old Lily LaRue Anderson's tumor to Monje's team upon the girl's death; her battle with DIPG lasted 11 months.) A neuro-oncologist not involved in the study tells NPR that Monje's findings have "potential implications across the entire family of gliomas in the brain ... not just pediatric tumors" and could lead to new treatments. Monje tells NPR one route that's not an option: using sedatives to reduce brain activity. "We don't want to stop people with brain tumors from thinking or learning or being active." (Will tiny balls of gold help improve cancer treatments?)