Gabriele Bartoli Brain Tumor Lab

Principal Investigators

The Gabriele Bartoli Brain Tumor Laboratory is part of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and headed by Dr. Jeffrey Bruce and Dr. Peter Canoll. We are a multidisciplinary group of researchers and clinicians dedicated to the care of patients with brain tumors, primarily glioblastoma (GB), the most common and aggressive malignant primary brain tumor. Members of our lab include associate research scientists, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, medical students, lab technicians, and neuroscientists from the Department of Neurological Surgery and neuropatholigists from the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology.

Our lab studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms of gliomagenesis, immune responses to brain tumors, and the development of therapies for brain tumor patients. In collaboration with the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the Bartoli Brain Tumor Laboratory curates a repository of surgical specimens from brain tumor patients, including radiographically localized biopsies from tumor core and the surrounding infiltrated brain tissue. We have also generated a variety of genetically engineered mouse models that recapitulate the histological and molecular features of human glioma. We are using these resources, both in studies conducted in our laboratory and with our collaborators, to study basic mechanisms of disease and to explore novel approaches to treatment.

This laboratory was named in dedication to the gifted viola player Gabriele Bartoli, who died of brain cancer in 1997. Gabriele’s sister, world-famous vocalist Cecilia Bartoli, who performed with him at various cancer research benefit concerts during his last months, dedicated these successful efforts to help fund brain tumor research in our Department of Neurological Surgery, leading to the opening and naming of this lab in November 1998.

Select Publications

  • Sonabend AM, Carminucci AS, Amendolara B, Bansal M, Leung R, Lei L, Realubit R, Li H, Karan C, Yun J, et al. (2014b) Convection-enhanced delivery of etoposide is effective against murine proneural glioblastoma. Neuro-Oncology 16(9):1210-1219 PubMed

  • Sonabend AM, Bansal M, Guarnieri P, Lei L, Amendolara B, Soderquist C, Leung R, Yun J, Kennedy B, Sisti J, et al. (2014a) The Transcriptional Regulatory Network of Proneural Glioma Determines the Genetic Alterations Selected During Tumor Progression. Cancer Research. PubMed Data sets used may be downloaded at NCBI GEO

  • Gonzalez, C, Sims JS, Hornstein N, Mela A, Garcia F, Lei L, Gass DA, Amendolara B, Bruce JN, Canoll P, et al. (2014) Ribosome profiling reveals a cell-type-specific translational landscape in brain tumors. The Journal of Neuroscience : The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience 34(33):10924-10936. PubMed Central Data sets used may be downloaded at NCBI GEO

  • Gill BJ, Pisapia DJ, Malone HR, Goldstein H, Lei L, Sonabend A, Yun J, Samanamud J, Sims JS, Banu M, et al. (2014) MRI-localized biopsies reveal subtype-specific differences in molecular and cellular composition at the margins of glioblastoma. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111(34):12550-12555. PubMed Data sets used may be downloaded at NCBI GEO

  • Sonabend AM, Yun J, Lei L, Leung R, Soderquist C, Crisman C, Gill BJ, Carminucci A, Sisti J, Castelli M, et al. (2013a) Murine cell line model of proneural glioma for evaluation of anti-tumor therapies. Journal of Neuro-Oncology 112(3):375-382. PubMed Central

  • Hopkins BD, Fine B, Steinbach N, Dendy M, Rapp Z, Shaw J, Pappas K, Yu JS, Hodakoski C, Mense S, et al. (2013) A secreted PTEN phosphatase that enters cells to alter signaling and survival. Science 341(6144):399-402. PubMed

  • Frattini V, Trifonov V, Chan JM, Castano A, Lia M, Abate F, Keir ST, Ji AX, Zoppoli P, Niola F, et al. (2013) The integrated landscape of driver genomic alterations in glioblastoma. Nature Genetics 45(10):1141-1149. PubMed

  • Anderson RC, Kennedy B, Yanes CL, Garvin J, Needle M, Canoll P, Feldstein NA, and Bruce JN. (2013) Convection-enhanced delivery of topotecan into diffuse intrinsic brainstem tumors in children. Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics 11(3):289-295. PubMed

  • Massey SC, Assanah MC, Lopez KA, Canoll P, and Swanson KR (2012) Glial progenitor cell recruitment drives aggressive glioma growth: Mathematical and experimental modelling. Journal of the Royal Society, Interface/The Royal Society 9(73):1757-1766. PubMed

  • Ivkovic S, Beadle C, Noticewala S, Massey SC, Swanson KR, Toro LN, Bresnick AR, Canoll P, and Rosenfeld SS (2012) Direct inhibition of myosin II effectively blocks glioma invasion in the presence of multiple motogens. Molecular Biology of the Cell 23(4):533-542.

  • D’Amico R, Lei L, Kennedy BC, Sisti J, Ebiana V, Crisman C, Christensen JG, Gil O, Rosenfeld SS, Canoll P, et al. (2012) The addition of Sunitinib to radiation delays tumor growth in a murine model of glioblastoma. Neurological Research 34(3):252-261. PubMed

  • Sonabend AM, Stuart RM, Yun J, Yanagihara T, Mohajed H, Dashnaw S, Bruce SS, Brown T, Romanov A, Sebastian M, et al. (2011) Prolonged intracerebral convection-enhanced delivery of topotecan with a subcutaneously implantable infusion pump. Neuro-Oncology 13(8):886-893. PubMed

  • Lopez KA, Tannenbaum AM, Assanah MC, Linskey K, Yun J, Kangarlu A, Gil OD, Canoll P, and Bruce JN (2011) Convection-enhanced delivery of topotecan into a PDGF-driven model of glioblastoma prolongs survival and ablates both tumor-initiating cells and recruited glial progenitors. Cancer Research 71(11):3963-3971. PubMed

  • Lei L, Sonabend AM, Guarnieri P, Soderquist C, Ludwig T, Rosenfeld S, Bruce JN, and Canoll P (2011) Glioblastoma models reveal the connection between adult glial progenitors and the proneural phenotype. PLOS ONE 6(5):e20041. PubMed Data sets used may be downloaded at NCBI GEO

  • Bruce JN, Fine RL, Canoll P, Yun J, Kennedy BC, Rosenfeld SS, Sands SA, Surapaneni K, Lai R, Yanes CL, et al. (2011) Regression of recurrent malignant gliomas with convection-enhanced delivery of topotecan. Neurosurgery 69(6):1272-1279; discussion 1279-1280. PubMed

  • David CJ, Chen M, Assanah M, Canoll P, and Manley JL (2010) HnRNP proteins controlled by c-Myc deregulate pyruvate kinase mRNA splicing in cancer. Nature 463(7279):364-368. PubMed

  • Bohman LE, Swanson KR, Moore JL, Rockne, R, Mandigo C, Hankinson T, Assanah M, Canoll P, and Bruce JN (2010) Magnetic resonance imaging characteristics of glioblastoma multiforme: implications for understanding glioma ontogeny. Neurosurgery 67(5):1319-1327; discussion 1327-1318. PubMed

  • Kennedy BC, Maier LM, D’Amico R, Mandigo CE, Fontana EJ, Waziri A, Assanah MC, Canoll P, Anderson RC, Anderson DE, et al. (2009) Dynamics of central and peripheral immunomodulation in a murine glioma model. BMC Immunology 10:11. PubMed

  • Assanah MC, Bruce JN, Suzuki SO, Chen A, Goldman JE, and Canoll P (2009) PDGF stimulates the massive expansion of glial progenitors in the neonatal forebrain. Glia 57(16):1835-1847. PubMed

  • Waziri A, Killory B, Ogden AT III, Canoll P, Anderson RC, Kent SC, Anderson DE, and Bruce JN (2008) Preferential in situ CD4+CD56+ T cell activation and expansion within human glioblastoma. Journal of Immunology 180(11):7673-7680. PubMed

  • Ogden AT, Waziri AE, Lochhead RA, Fusco D, Lopez K, Ellis JA, Kang J, Assanah M, McKhann GM, Sisti MB, et al. (2008) Identification of A2B5+CD133- tumor-initiating cells in adult human gliomas. Neurosurgery 62(2):505-514; discussion 514-505. PubMed

  • Ivkovic S, Canoll P, and Goldman JE (2008) Constitutive EGFR signaling in oligodendrocyte progenitors leads to diffuse hyperplasia in postnatal white matter. The Journal of Neuroscience : The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience 28(4):914-922. PubMed

  • Canoll P and Goldman JE (2008) The interface between glial progenitors and gliomas. Acta Neuropathologica 116(5):465-477. PubMed

  • Beadle C, Assanah MC, Monzo P, Vallee R, Rosenfeld SS, and Canoll P (2008) The role of myosin II in glioma invasion of the brain. Molecular Biology of the Cell 19(8):3357-3368. PubMed

  • Lopez KA, Waziri AE, Canoll PD, and Bruce JN (2006) Convection-enhanced delivery in the treatment of malignant glioma. Neurological Research 28(5):542-548. PubMed

  • Farin A, Suzuki SO, Weiker M, Goldman JE, Bruce JN, and Canoll P (2006) Transplanted glioma cells migrate and proliferate on host brain vasculature: A dynamic analysis. Glia 53(8):799-808. PubMed

  • Assanah M, Lochhead R, Ogden A, Bruce J, Goldman J, and Canoll P (2006) Glial progenitors in adult white matter are driven to form malignant gliomas by platelet-derived growth factor-expressing retroviruses. The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience 26(25):6781-6790. JNeurosci