Brain Tumour UK Neuro-Oncology Research Centre

Our Neuro-Oncology Research Centre combines two of the UK’s leading research teams in a single location at the University of Wolverhampton. This combined team is focusing its energy and attention on childhood brain tumours, and both high-grade and low-grade adult tumours, to make a difference for everyone affected by a brain tumour.

The Research Centre, opened in February 2010, is managed by Professor John Darling, who leads the high-grade brain tumour expert team, and Dr Tracy Warr, who heads the low-grade and childhood brain tumour research team (formerly based at the Institute of Neurology in University College London).

‘We are developing new agents to target high-grade brain tumours and learning how low-grade brain tumours mutate into malignant tumours,’ explains Professor Darling. ‘We expect to be able to share a huge amount of information and discoveries with Tracy’s team, which is already identifying genes involved in childhood brain tumours.’

In an exciting development, Tracy’s team has already identified a significant gene in nine out of ten malignant astrocytomas. ‘If this gene could be turned off, it could bring significant benefits to patients with malignant glioma,’ says Tracy.

Our Research Centre has the biggest collection of short-term brain tumour cell cultures in the UK, and probably the biggest collection of childhood brain tumour cultures in the world – more than 3,000.

Professor John Darling talks about the Centre in this short video.

If you have further questions about the Neuro-Oncology Research Centre in Wolverhampton please get in touch.

Would you like to help Brain Tumour UK fund more groundbreaking research? You can donate to help our Wolverhampton research team right now by visiting our dedicated MyDonate page. Thank you for supporting Brain Tumour UK to give help today and provide hope for tomorrow to everyone affected by a brain tumour.