UCLA
Los Angeles, United States
Dr. Weihong Ge is an associate adjunct professor/project scientist at UCLA with expertise in molecular mechanisms underlying neural stem cell (NSC) differentiation and stem cell-based approaches to treat neurological diseases. Since January 2021, Dr. Ge has been a member of the Department of Biological Chemistry at UCLA, focusing on glioblastoma (GBM), the most heterogeneous and lethal brain tumor in adults.
Dr. Ge's prior research experience in developmental neurobiology is highly relevant to studying GBM, given that GBM reactivates developmental trajectories and cell types resembling those of neural development. Leveraging her expertise in the neurodevelopmental field, she has optimized transplantation methods in the GBM human cortical organoid model, which enables robust interrogation of glioblastoma and the study of their interaction with normal brain cells. Drawing on her previous experiences in cell culture, immunohistochemistry, RNAscope, and high-throughput technologies such as single-cell transcriptome analysis and more integrated multiome analyses, Dr. Ge aims to unveil the molecular mechanisms underlying GBM progenitor progression. Additionally, she investigates their dependency on/adaptation to the tumor microenvironment. These insights hold the potential to develop personalized drugs and test drug resistance through individual drug screening.
