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The Aghi lab investigates the tumor microenvironment of malignant brain tumors like glioblastoma or brain metastases and benign brain tumors like pituitary adenomas. They use techniques such as single cell sequencing, novel xenograft models, and collaborations with industry partners to investigate the role of the tumor microenvironment in the aggressive biology and therapeutic resistance of these tumors.

Full talk description to come.

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About the Speaker

Dr. Aghi is a neurosurgeon-scientist specializing in adult brain tumors, including pituitary tumors and gliomas.

For pituitary tumors, Dr. Aghi leads a large nationwide clinical research team that has published several dozen award-winning publications on the resection of pituitary tumors and other tumors of the anterior skull base through an endoscopic endonasal approach. This technique is a minimally invasive approach that involves removing the tumor through the nose—without the need for facial incisions. In 2017, Dr. Aghi was appointed to lead a national Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) taskforce that formulated ten published manuscripts summarizing guidelines for the neurosurgical management of pituitary tumors.

For gliomas, Dr. Aghi leads a scientific laboratory studying how the tumor microenvironment contributes to therapeutic resistance in glioblastoma. These research efforts complement his neurosurgical treatment of glioblastoma patients, for which he uses intraoperative mapping of brain function and 5-Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) to optimize tumor resection. The research efforts in Dr. Aghi’s lab have also been brought from the bench to the bedside on several occasions, as Dr. Aghi has been and is currently principal investigator of several clinical trials for recurrent glioblastoma, including a phase I clinical trial studying convection-enhanced delivery of a replicating retrovirus for recurrent glioblastoma.