Despite advances in multimodal therapies, malignant brain tumors continue to be devastating neurological diseases. The proliferation of recent genome-wide surveys of genetic and epigenetic alterations in brain tumors has led to the important identification of a multitude of tumor-specific abnormalities, which are only beginning to be understood at the functional, biological level. The goal of my laboratory is to use a combined genomic and developmental approach to identify critical signaling nodes that drive malignant brain tumor growth and invasiveness. The underlying hypothesis of the research is that abnormalities in processes that govern normal neural development contribute to malignant transformation and behavior. My laboratory therefore focuses on common signaling pathways in brain development and malignant brain tumors, with an emphasis on glioblastoma multiforme and medulloblastoma. Potentially, these discoveries could be leveraged clinically to generate novel therapies for patients.
