In an incerdible development,
ABC2 and
CureSearch for Children's Cancer have jointly funded a supplement to the our international collaboration entitled, "Rapid Preclinical Development of a Targeted Therapy Combination for DIPG". The two new sponsor partners provide $76,000 and $25,000, respectively, for a total of $101,000. Their new supplement will allow us to exon sequencing of all 16 cell lines, their primary tumor and paired normal DNA via the laboratory of Dr. Paul Spellman (OHSU; see his recent functional genomics paper
here). From this data we will prioritize combination drug testing on the most clinically ‘representative’ samples
(i.e., samples that have classical DIPG findings which are in order: c‐MET amplification, p53 deletion, PDGFRA amplification, IGF1R/IGF2 amplification, CDK4/CDK6 gain or Shh pathway mutation, EGFR amplification or KRAS/NRAS mutation) or cell lines that are most similar overall to one another (
i.e., not outliers).
This project is more fully described
here and
here. This study was originally made possible by a $100,000 grant from TheCureStartsNow. An additional $28,000 supplement from The Lyla Nsouli Foundation for Children’s Brain Cancer Research further allowed our project to expand to the 2 participating European collaborators. The new $101,000 from
ABC2 and
CureSearch for Children's Cancer adds significant new scope to this endeavor. The interesting aspect is that a large part of the new scope was envisioned by our ABC
2 partner's scientific advisory board - an example of the value of scientific and strategic partnership.
We are grateful to the Joanna McAfee Childhood Cancer Foundation for our new 2012 research grant of $12,000 for the project, "60 by 60: Finding the Very Best Targeted Therapy Combination for Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma". JMCCF is a very important organization not only for funding research, but also for supporting families of childhood cancer patients in central Georgia and beyond. 
We are pleased to Amy Paul join our laboratory as a new intern in pediatric oncology translational research. Amy is a recent graduate of the OHSU School of Nursing and will be functioning in important roles for our childhood tumor bank & registry as well as a canine personalized sarcoma therapy trial. 
In an incerdible development, ABC2 and CureSearch for Children's Cancer have jointly funded a supplement to the our international collaboration entitled, "Rapid Preclinical Development of a Targeted Therapy Combination for DIPG". The two new sponsor partners provide $76,000 and $25,000, respectively, for a total of $101,000. Their new supplement will allow us to exon sequencing of all 16 cell lines, their primary tumor and paired normal DNA via the laboratory of Dr. Paul Spellman (OHSU; see his recent functional genomics paper here). From this data we will prioritize combination drug testing on the most clinically ‘representative’ samples (i.e., samples that have classical DIPG findings which are in order: c‐MET amplification, p53 deletion, PDGFRA amplification, IGF1R/IGF2 amplification, CDK4/CDK6 gain or Shh pathway mutation, EGFR amplification or KRAS/NRAS mutation) or cell lines that are most similar overall to one another (i.e., not outliers).
Congratulations again to lab alumni Sachiko and Monika for the publication this month in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology of our study, "Bortezomib stabilizes NOXA and triggers ROS-associated apoptosis in medulloblastoma". Co-authors include lab alumni Tohru and Laura. This was a very exciting study funded by the National Brain Tumor Society and the Hyundai Motor Corporation Hope on Wheels Program (precursor studies were funded by St Baldrick's Foundation). These results have piqued our interest in similar compounds such as Carfilzomib for pediatric medulloblastoma. 
