Multi-omic networks in gliomas (MONET)

Gliomas, the most common primary brain tumors, arise from the glial cells and typically exhibit bad prognosis. In particular, glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and aggressive (grade IV) form of brain tumors in adults, presents median survival times of 12 to 15 months. The MONET project will advance current research on the identification and validation of glioma networks across multiple omic layers and molecular biomarkers, aiming at improving patient diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic decisions, in a two-fold goal: i) identifying intertumoral multi-omics network-based differences and similarities in different glioma subtypes; and ii) assessing intratumoral heterogeneity in GBM, the most heterogeneous and malignant type of brain cancer, through the identification of distinct and shared singlecell network-based profiles across GBM clones, towards the development of new therapies targeting multiple clones. This will be accomplished through the development of machine learning and bioinformatic tools encompassing network analysis, model regularization, and causal inference, topics at the forefront of machine learning research.

Funding Agency

FCT, Portugal

Project Reference

PTDC/CCI-BIO/4180/2020

Project Members

Main Project Outcomes

S. Queirós, “Right ventricular segmentation in multi-view cardiac MRI using a unified U-net model”, in E. Puyol Antón et al. (eds) Statistical Atlases and Computational Models of the Heart. Multi-Disease, Multi-View, and Multi-Center Right Ventricular Segmentation in Cardiac MRI Challenge. STACOM 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13131, pp. 287-295, Springer, Cham, 2022.

“Best Paper Award in the M&Ms-2 Challenge”, by M&Ms2 Challenge organizers and the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Society.

Main Project Outcomes

Lopes M.B., Martins E.P., Vinga S., Costa B.M. (2021) The Role of Network Science in Glioblastoma. Cancers, 13(5): 1045, DOI: 10.3390/cancers13051045;

Martins E.P., Gonçalves C.S., Pojo M., Carvalho R., Ribeiro A.S., Miranda-Gonçalves V., Taipa R., Pardal F., Pinto A.A., Custódia C., Faria C.C., Baltazar F., Sousa N., Paredes J., Costa B.M. Cadherin-3 is a novel oncogenic biomarker with prognostic value in glioblastoma. Molecular Oncology, DOI: 10.1002/1878-0261.13162