This blog originated as a press release from the University of Sussex.
New research by scientists at the University of Sussex could be the first step towards developing a blood test to diagnose the most aggressive type of brain tumour, known as Glioblastoma.
A team from Professor Georgios Giamas’ lab at the University of Sussex has identified novel biomarkers within bodily fluids, which signal the presence of the tumour. Dr. Giamas is Professor of Cancer Cell Signalling in the School of Life Sciences.
Cancer biomarkers are molecules that are either exclusively found or over-expressed in cancer cells, as compared to ‘normal’, healthy cells. Biomarkers can be considered as biological signatures for a disease, as they indicate the presence of cancer in the body.
In a new paper published in the Nature journal Communications Biology, Professor Giamas and his team describe particular biomarkers that are associated with extracellular vesicles – small ’packages’ released by cells into bodily fluids so cells can communicate with each other.