During this talk, Elizabeth will discuss her research into better understanding and treating the aggressive brain cancer known as glioblastoma. Elizabeth has the unique privilege of being able to use cells grown from brain tumours donated by patients through the Hugh Green Biobank. Working with medicinal chemists at the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre, her work uses fluorescent dyes combined with existing targeted chemotherapies to better understand and hopefully improve their blood-brain barrier uptake and tumour specificity, two key issues that challenge the use of these drugs for brain tumours.

ABOUT ELIZABETH COOPER

Elizabeth Cooper is a PhD student at the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland and is funded by a Neurological Foundation Gillespie Scholarship for her research into the primary brain tumour, glioblastoma. Her research focuses on the development of new treatments for glioblastoma, which despite a rigorous treatment regimen, has a devastating survival time of only 12 to 15 months.