Grant Summaries

PI:  Fausto J. Rodriguez M.D., Johns Hopkins Medical Institute new 2011-2012, one-year Patients with pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) generally have favorable outcomes following surgical intervention, although a subset may cause significant morbidity or mortality, despite lack of atypical histologic features. Unlike diffuse gliomas, increased proliferation, invasive growth pattern, and/or necrosis do not always predict aggressive behavior …

PI:  Joseph Scafidi, DO, Children’s Research Institute Grant duration, Aug. 2011–Sept. 2013. New, first year summary. Childhood is a critical time because of rapid growth and development of the brain. During this period, the brain’s white matter, composed of myelin, is the last structure to fully mature. There is growing evidence that a disturbance in …

PI:  Susan M. Mendrysa, Ph.D., Purdue University First year, August 2011- September 2012, Funding duration 2011-2013 Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant brain cancer of childhood.  Although mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor protein are found in the majority of human cancer, p53 mutations are rare in MB tumors.  This suggests that  alternative events …

PI: Lionel Chow, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Summary report, grand duration 2011-2013 Children who develop high-grade glioma (HGG) have a very poor prognosis. New and more effective treatment options are desperately needed to improve patient survival and quality of life. In order to better understand how these tumors grow, we are looking at a …

Chuck Stiles, M.D. November 2010, Summary With the generous support of the Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation, the laboratory of Dr. Charles Stiles at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has developed pre-clinical models for testing drugs that target the PI3K signaling pathway. We have evidence that the PI3K signaling pathway may be mutated in some juvenile pilocytic astrocytomas. We …

Chin Chiang, M.D. Second-year funding 2010-2011 Medulloblastoma, the most common pediatric solid tumor, is characterized by its rapid progression and tendency to spread along the entire brain-spinal axis with poor clinical outcome. We have generated a novel mouse model of medulloblastoma by constitutively activating Shh signaling in the Gdf7-lineage. Previous studies have shown that Gdf7-expressing …