Dr. Mario Suva’s research has provided unprecedented insights into pediatric and adult brain tumors with single-cell genomic technologies. He leverages a systems biology approach to characterize and target the cellular states that drive gliomas. He pioneered and co-directed the first studies using single-cell RNA-sequencing to comprehensively characterize the environments of pediatric and adult gliomas. His efforts have offered new insights into cancer stem cell programs, cancer cells lineages of differentiation, and the interplay between neural development and genetics in adult and pediatric brain tumors.
With NFCR support, Dr. Suva and Dr. Rakesh Jain, also at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard, are collaborating to improve the immunotherapy, CAR-T therapy for patients with the deadly brain cancer, GBM (glioblastoma). The infiltration of CAR-T cells into the tumor microenvironment is needed to improve CAR-T cell therapy. Moreover, CAR-T cells actually produce an immune-suppressive environment. Dr. Jain has shown that the anti-hypertensive agent, lorsartan, has potential to improve the delivery and efficacy of CAR-T cells against GBM in models. Dr. Suva is using his systems biology approach with single-cell genomic techniques to identify the cell-specific role of losartan in CAR-T cell-induced immunosuppression.
If proven efficacious, these results will directly inform the design of clinical trial(s) testing this novel combination to achieve durable anti-tumor responses in GBM patients.
