Welcome to the Brain Metastasis Research Group
The Brain Metastasis Research Group, headed by Prof. Frits Thorsen, is one of the five main research groups in the Translational Cancer and Vascular Unit at the Department of Biomedicine.
The mission of our research is to understand molecular pathways involved in the development of metastatic brain tumors, and to develop new treatments that ultimately can be used to treat cancer patients with brain metastasis.
Our work focuses on 3 main avenues:
We have performed genetic studies on our model systems, which has resulted in determination of several novel drugs originally used for other conditions than cancer, which shows inhibitory effects on brain metastases in vivo.
We are studying the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which prevents therapeutic drugs from entering the brain.
We are investigating the effect of exosomes on the tumor microenvironment, and have encouraging data showing that miRNAs delivered to the brain by exosomes are important in preparing the pre-metastatic niche.
