Our data showed that cell-ECM interaction can activate functional pathways in tumor cells: for example, the genes responsible for PC1 variance in the PCA plot that separate 3D-SF/gel model from the primary MB tissue are either associated with neuronal development (NEUROG1, CPLX2, UNCX, etc) or neuronal function including synaptic transmission and ion channels (HPCA, SV2B, SYT4, KCNQ2, CACNG2, etc). Here, CPLX2 is linked to neoplasm.