Fort Lewis College Biology Professor David Blake has been given a Fulbright Award to join an interdisciplinary brain cancer research team at Aarhus University in Denmark.
Blake, who will spend about six months in Denmark, will be studying how oncolytic viruses – cancer-specific viruses – can be used to target and destroy some forms of cancer, including highly malignant brain cancers like high-grade glioblastoma and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors. He will be in the laboratory of David Olagnier, working alongside chemists, neurosurgeons, oncologists and pediatric cancer specialists.
Olagnier’s research centers around how cellular defense proteins can make cancer cells more susceptible to viral therapies, and Blake investigates how immunomodulators influence cellular responses to help improve treatment outcomes.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Cancer Institute recently stopped funding the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium, Blake said, making the research especially needed.
“This work is more important than ever,” he said in a Thursday news release from the college.
Researchers will use 3D clusters of cells grown from tumor samples called organoid models to mimic human tumors – and Blake intends to bring his knowledge on culturing organoids back to undergraduate studies at Fort Lewis College.
In February 2025, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs named Fort Lewis College as a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.
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