Targeted Drug Delivery for Pediatric Brain Cancer
Our laboratory seeks to revolutionize how pediatric brain cancer patients are treated using a novel drug discovery and delivery pipeline with (1) computational biology / high-throughput screening to identify promising pharmacologic targets, and (2) novel biomedical techniques pioneered by our team to optimize penetration of the blood-brain barrier.
Our Research
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Drug Prediction / Screening
Using network-based precision oncology computational algorithms, we can predict novel therapies by leveraging the tumor transcriptome to reverse engineer pharmacologically actionable, tumor-driving regulatory programs. Combined with high-throughput drug screening, we have generated pipeline of promising therapeutics for pediatric brain tumors, with a focus on diffuse midline glioma (DMG).
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Focused Ultrasound (FUS)
FUS has been shown by our group (and others) to disrupt the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in a non-invasive, safe, targeted, and reversible manner. This has led to two phase I clinical trials at our institution assessing the feasibility of FUS technology in pediatric brain cancer patients.
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Convection-Enhanced Delivery (CED)
CED is a high precision local drug infusion technique where drugs are delivered at high concentrations directly into the tumor and surrounding brain through a surgically implanted catheter attached to a microinfusion pump. The BBB is bypassed and systemic toxicities that commonly limit chemotherapy are avoided.
Contact Us
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