The brain tumor microenvironment.

High-grade brain tumors are heterogeneous with respect to the composition of bona fide tumor cells and with respect to a range of intermingling parenchymal cells. Glioblastomas harbor multiple cell types, some with increased tumorigenicity and stem cell-like capacity. The stem-like cells maybe the cells of origin for tumor relapse.

The brain tumor microenvironment.

High-grade brain tumors are heterogeneous with respect to the composition of bona fide tumors cells and with respect to a range of intermingling parenchymal cells. Glioblastomas harbor multiple cell types, some with increased tumorigenicity and stem cell-like capacity. The stem-like cells may be the cells of origin for tumor relapse.

TRRAP and the maintenance of stemness in gliomas.

Resistance of brain tumors to therapy and their eventual recurrence is attributed to stem-like cells. In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, a high-throughput kinome-wide screen (Wurdak et al., 2010) has identified TRRAP, a kinase-related protein, as being required for stem cell character in gliomas.