The Board of Directors of the Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation (CBTF) has voted to provide funding for three Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC) initiatives.
Initiative 1: $150,000 for CBTTC infrastructure
Initiative 2: $75,000 – Children’s National Hospital – The purpose of the gift is to support the Brain Tumor Research Fund. Specifically, this gift will advance pediatric brain tumor research by funding a project dedicated to proteogenomic identification of novel tumor proteins as neoantigens in ependymoma. The goals of this project projected to be satisfied in a one- year timespan are to: identify tumor-specific peptides using custom-built individual DNA/RNA-seq databases and peptide mass spectra from ependymoma and characterize the immunogenicity of ex vivo expanded T cells targeting synthesized tumor-specific peptides identified in Aim 1.
Initiative 3: $75,000 – Boston Children’s Hospital – Understanding developmental cell lineage in relapsed childhood medulloblastoma using single cell DNA sequencing technology. Single cell sequencing can achieve what bulk sequencing cannot. It can detect mutations in only a few cells, and provide information as to the timing by which each mutation arose. Therefore, single cell analysis provides an extremely powerful approach to understanding how brain cancer develops. This technology has never been applied to childhood medulloblastoma and would enable identification of many different types of mutations. To perform this work, single cells will be isolated from initial medulloblastoma as well as recurrent/progressive medulloblastoma. These samples are readily available through the CBTTC and this project has already been approved. The availability of initial medulloblastoma and recurrent medulloblastoma tissue in the CBTCC is particularly valuable. The tissue consortium provides a unique opportunity to better understand why the brain cancer medulloblastoma comes back or becomes worse after treatment.
“We are very grateful for the collaboration of CBTF in our efforts to find new immunotherapeutic options for children with ependymoma. This project also benefits from the support that CBTF has generously provided to the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC) and demonstrates the power of foundations partnering with academia to push research forward.”
-Brian R. Rood, MD
Medical Director, Neuro-Oncology
Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
Children’s National Health System
“The treatment of childhood ependymomas remains suboptimal and the use of immunotherapy holds great promise if we can better determine the neoantigens specific to the tumor; proteogenomics is a novel means to identify such antigens and allow the development of an effective strategy.”
– Roger J. Packer, MD
Senior Vice President, Center for Neuroscience and Behavioral Medicine
Director, The Brain Tumor Institute Director, The Gilbert Family
Neurofibromatosis Institute Children’s National Health System