An Indian-origin scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies claims that his team have created a mouse model of the most common and deadly brain cancer called glioblastoma, which closely resembles the development and progression of naturally arising human brain tumours.

"Mouse models of human cancer have taught us a great deal about the basic principles of cancer biology. By definition, however, they are just that: approximations that simulate a disease but never fully capture the molecular complexity underlying disease in humans," Nature Medicine quoted Dr. Inder Verma, a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics, as saying.

He revealed that with a view to mimicking randomly occurring mutations that lie at the heart of all tumours, his team used modified viruses to shuttle cancer-causing oncogenes into a handful of cells in adult mice.

He said that his group's strategy could not only prove a very useful method to faithfully reproduce different types of tumours, but also to elucidate the nature of elusive cancer stem cells.

Presently, the most frequently used mouse cancer model relies on xenografts: Human tumour tissue or cancer cell lines are transplanted in immuno-compromised mice, which quickly develop tumours.

"These tumors are very reproducible, but this approach ignores the fact that the immune system can make or break cancer," says first author Dr. Tomotoshi Marumoto, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Verma lab and now an assistant professor at the Kobe Medical Center Hospital in Kobe, Japan.