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McCain-Bayh Consortium

MD Anderson is part of the newly awarded Department of Defense McCain-Bayh Glioblastoma Consortium, a national collaboration of leading brain cancer centers focused on improving treatment for glioblastoma.

As part of this $10 million initiative, Vinay Puduvalli, M.D., professor and chair, Neuro-Oncology, will lead Project 5, which explores how the human microbiome — the community of bacteria in the gut, mouth and tumors — may influence patient responses to immunotherapy in glioblastoma. Collaborators include Jennifer Wargo, M.D., professor, Surgical Oncology, director of the PRIME-TR core facility, Sherise Ferguson, M.D., professor, Neurosurgery, and Pratibha Sharma, Ph.D., assistant professor, Neuro-Oncology.

The team will study microbiome changes over time and connect them to immune activity, tumor gene expression and clinical outcomes. The ultimate goal is to determine whether beneficial bacteria could help improve therapy responses for glioblastoma patients, similar to findings in other cancers. Patient enrollment for this research is expected to begin in early 2026.

Internal Media

MD Anderson receives over $10 million from Break Through Cancer to support collaborative research with leading cancer centers

MD Anderson was awarded more than $10 million in grants to support collaborative research teams working to advance novel interception and treatment strategies that will improve outcomes for several cancer types with the greatest unmet need, including pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer and glioblastoma (GBM). Funded by Break Through Cancer, this work includes Dr. Puduvalli's collaborative project, "Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies."

Pancreatic tumor with HIF2 (red) expressed in cancer-associated fibroblasts (green). Cell nuclei are shown in blue. Image courtesy of Yanqing Huang, Ph.D., and Cullen Taniguchi, M.D., Ph.D.

MD Anderson Research Highlights for February 23, 2022

A new study targets DNA repair and survival pathways to restore chemoradiation sensitivity to treat GBM. Homologous recombination (HR), a DNA repair pathway, can facilitate resistance to chemoradiation in glioma stem cells. Therefore, Vinay Puduvalli, M.D., and a team of researchers evaluated the safety and efficacy of targeting heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) — a molecular chaperone that plays a critical role in the function of key HR proteins — to compromise HR.

Brain scan pictures depicting glioblastoma

Q&A: Understanding glioblastoma (GBM)

If you’ve been diagnosed with glioblastoma (GBM), you might have questions about treatment options. While glioblastoma is an aggressive tumor, there are many advances and treatment plans that can be tailored to a patient’s specific needs. Neuro-oncologist Vinay Puduvalli, M.D., answers common questions about glioblastoma and what’s next in patient care.