Researcher Profile Form First National Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Meeting March 9, 2025 - Jerusalem
Researcher: Prof. Chaya Brodie
Current Role & Affiliation
Title/Position: Professor
Institution: Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA), Bar-Ilan UniversityCo-Founder and Senior Scientific Advisor, EviCure, Ltd.
Email: chaya@biu.ac.il
Phone: 054-7212877
Prof. Brodie has been researching brain tumors and neurological diseases for over 25 years, focusing on neuro-immune interactions, cancer stem cells and the functions of extracellular vesicles.
Research Focus
● Neuro-immune interactions in adult and pediatric brain tumors
● Cellular and molecular pathways in cancer stem cell biology
● Non-coding RNA expression and function in brain tumors and neuromuscular diseases
● Extracellular vesicles as disease mediators, diagnostic biomarkers and drug delivery vehicles
Current Projects Related to Pediatric Brain Tumors
● Studying the role of senescence in the crosstalk of pediatric brain tumors and the tumor microenvironment
● Developing extracellular vesicles loaded with RNA-based therapeutics for the treatment of brain tumors. RNA editing in adult and pediatric brain tumors
● Drug repurposing in pediatric brain tumors
Laboratory/Research Resources
● In vitro and in vivo imaging systems
● Primary and immortalized neural and tumor cell cultures
Collaboration Interests
● Analyzing novel circulating biomarkers
● RNA seq data for analyzing RNA editing and non-coding RNA expression
What You Can Offer Potential Collaborators
● Expertise in cancer stem cell biology and crosstalk with glial and neuronal cells
● Advanced imaging and cell differentiation studies
● Tools, and methods related to extracellular vesicles
Selected Publications
1. Shalash R, Levi-Ferber M, Cohen C, Dori A, Brodie C, Henis-Korenblit S. Cross-species modeling of muscular dystrophy in Caenorhabditis elegans using patient-derived extracellular vesicles. Dis Model Mech. 2024 Mar 1;17(3):dmm050412. doi: 10.1242/dmm.050412. PMID: 38501170
2. Nizar R, et.al. Propofol Inhibits Glioma Stem Cell Growth and Migration and Their Interaction with Microglia via BDNF-AS and Extracellular Vesicles. Cells. 2023 Jul 25;12(15):1921. doi: 10.3390/cells12151921
3. Penning DH, et.al. Neuron-Glia Crosstalk Plays a Major Role in the Neurotoxic Effects of Ketamine via Extracellular Vesicles. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 Sep 16;9:691648.
Keywords
Extracellular vesicles, Brain tumors, Cancer stem Cells, Non-coding RNAs, Neuromuscular diseases
Brief Bio
Prof. Brodie has been studying brain tumors and neurological diseases for the last 35 years. Her research has been focused on non-coding RNAs expression and functions in cancer stem cells in vitro and in vivo and have identified novel targets and non-coding RNA networks that regulate migration, stemness, and radiation resistance. In addition, she is studying extracellular vesicles as disease mediators, circulating biomarkers and delivery tools of exogenous therapeutics. Her lab has generated a large number of primary cultures of adult and pediatric gliomas, primary and immortalized cultures of human neural cells for studying tumor-neural cell interactions and an array of reporters for in vivo imaging.
