Two Georgetown University Medical Center oncology professors published a new method for treating a lethal brain tumor in a Jan. 7 paper. 

Dr. Nagi G. Ayad and Dr. Robert K. Suter led a team of 26 other researchers at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center studying cancerous cells in glioblastoma tumors, the most aggressive and common form of brain cancer. The researchers developed a software application that analyzes the effects of pharmaceuticals on brain cancer cells and aims to facilitate the production of new drugs to cure glioblastoma.

Suter said the research aims to develop software that directly targets the growth of cancerous cells in glioblastoma tumors.

“The paper focuses on a piece of software that we developed called SC Focal that takes drug signatures, how a cell responds to a drug, and then maps that onto single-cell data,” Suter told The Hoya. 

Suter said the current treatment options for glioblastoma, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, are only temporary solutions. 

“The tumors almost always reoccur after that treatment,” Suter said. 

Ayad and Suter’s findings allow researchers to begin formulating drugs that will efficiently target and cure glioblastomas by eradicating individual cancer cells. Their research analyzes thousands of singular cells within tumors, which differ from person to person, to help scientists develop responsive and effective drugs. 

Ayad said the team’s research could support developing effective pharmaceuticals to treat glioblastomas on a case-by-case basis. 

“What this particular article shows is that we may need different combinations for different people,” Ayad told The Hoya. “It won’t be just one molecule or one genetic therapy. In this case, we would need combinations that are individualized.”

Ayad said their team uses single-cell sequencing, which allows researchers to analyze thousands of cells in a tumor individually and develop drugs to treat the tumor as a whole. 

“Around seven years ago, single-cell sequencing became more commonplace — that’s where you can sequence and note the identity of each cell within a tumor,” Ayad said. “We knew at the time that we really needed to use this new technology to understand glioblastoma and make predictions about drugs.”

Multiple institutions, including Lombardi, the cancer research fundraiser Bellringer, and federal agencies, funded the research, according to Ayad. Georgetown published the study in collaboration with the University of Miami, the nonprofit health group Mayo Clinic and biotechnology company Curtana. 

Rithvik Veeramachaneni (CAS ’25, MED ’29), a medical student who worked in Ayad and Suter’s lab, said making the discoveries accessible to other researchers was important.

“Over the course of a summer, I figured out how we could make the product of our research, which was an application, accessible to other researchers to use that algorithm that we had put together,” Veeramachaneni told The Hoya. “The purpose of that algorithm was mainly to allow for a level of analysis of tumors based on RNA instead of DNA, which is considered to be an up-and-coming field.”

Grace Baker (CAS ’23), another undergraduate researcher in the lab, said she appreciated being able to follow her interests in the lab. 

“I was one of the first undergraduates in the lab,” Baker told The Hoya. “Dr. Ayad was very good at getting you to do things that you actually wanted to do. I did a lot of computational work. I did a lot of coding in the R language.”

Ayad said he was proud that the team of researchers included clinicians, biologists and undergraduate students.

“I’m actually proud that a lot of Georgetown undergrads were part of this project and are part of the publication as well,” Ayad said. “They did a lot of computational work, so it’s a diverse group.” 

Pravallika Palawi (SOH ’26), another undergraduate researcher, said Suter was an inspiring mentor.

“I didn’t have much experience in programming or coding before I joined the lab, and my mentor has been really helpful in providing me with resources so I could learn,” Palawi told The Hoya.

Suter said this research may hold implications outside of glioblastomas, such as the treatment of spinal cord injuries and paralysis. 

“This is not just a cancer tool, but a general biological, biomedical drug discovery tool,” Suter said.