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SELECTBIO Conferences Extracellular Vesicles (EVs: Exosomes and Microvesicles): Research, Diagnostics and Therapeutics Applications

Leonora Balaj's Biography



Leonora Balaj, Instructor in Neurosurgery, Mass General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard Medical School

Leonora Balaj is Instructor in Neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Bridgeport in CT and her PhD in Medicine from the VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. During her graduate studies she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Breakefield at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the department of Neurology. Her work focuses on the characterization of brain tumor derived vesicles as a tool for cell-cell communication as well as a source for biomarkers.

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Longitudinal Analysis of Serum-derived Exosomal RNA Identifies Biomarkers of Treatment Response to Targeted Therapy for Glioblastoma

Thursday, 29 March 2018 at 17:30

Add to Calendar ▼2018-03-29 17:30:002018-03-29 18:30:00Europe/LondonLongitudinal Analysis of Serum-derived Exosomal RNA Identifies Biomarkers of Treatment Response to Targeted Therapy for GlioblastomaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

We performed longitudinal whole-transcriptome profiling of serum exosomes from patients suffering recurrent glioblastoma (GBM) enrolled in a clinical trial to assess response to Dacomitinib, a second-generation irreversible EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor. All patients underwent daily oral administration of Dacomitinib and blood samples were collected immediately prior to first treatment and monthly thereafter. Deep sequencing of exosomal RNA (exRNA), derived from just 2ml of patient serum, revealed robust signatures of treatment response, as defined by 6-month progression-free survival. Furthemore, in comparison to healthy control serum we find hundreds of transcripts exhibiting differential abundance in pre-treatment GBM patients that may serve as general non-invasive biomarkers for this devastating disease. This study represents the first longitudinal profiling of the exosomal transcriptome and these findings are a tantalizing step toward exosome-based biomarkers for the detection of GBM and for patient stratification and monitoring.


Add to Calendar ▼2018-03-28 00:00:002018-03-29 00:00:00Europe/LondonExtracellular Vesicles (EVs: Exosomes and Microvesicles): Research, Diagnostics and Therapeutics ApplicationsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com