Overview

The Mayo Clinic Brain Tumor Patient-Derived Xenograft National Resource, launched under the direction of Jann N. Sarkaria, M.D., provides a highly annotated series of brain tumor patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models with levels of multi-omic characterizations comparable to those provided for patient tumors by The Cancer Genome Atlas Program.

The collection in the Brain Tumor PDX National Resource was created by taking tumor samples obtained during surgery and directly implanting them in nude mice. Resulting xenografts were then serially passaged to amass tissue stocks for our archives. While we mainly focus on glioblastoma, we also have brain metastasis models.

PDX models have become a gold standard for both basic and translational research studies in glioblastoma. Because a large number of cells can be recovered from established xenografts, even slow-growing tumors can be easily expanded to enable large in vitro or in vivo studies. Models from the Brain Tumor PDX National Resource have been widely distributed in the neuro-oncology research community and used in more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts.

By giving other researchers the tools to readily identify tumor lines of greatest interest for their own research, we help advance brain tumor and glioblastoma research around the world and move closer to better treatment options for patients.