Nazanin Majd
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in children. Its most common subtype is called Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) medulloblastoma, after the signaling pathway that drives it.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
Genetics
- Topics
medulloblastoma
pediatric brain tumor
Sonic Hedgehog
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- Run a phase II clinical trial of the checkpoint inhibitors nivolumab and ipilimumab in patients with Shh medulloblastoma, and test whether clinical outcomes correlate with U1 (r.3A>G) snRNA mutation status.
- Use transcriptomic profiling to identify new tumor epitopes produced by U1-driven splicing errors, characterize the tumor microenvironment, and describe cells along the differentiation hierarchy in U1-mutant tumors.
- Rank the U1-mutation-driven epitopes, then design and test CAR T cells, patient immune cells engineered to recognize these targets, in preclinical models of Shh medulloblastoma.
More about the research
Adolescents with the Shh-α form who also carry mutations in TP53, a gene that normally guards against cancer, almost never survive. Adults with the Shh-δ form often suffer serious harm from radiation to the brain and spine, and they have few options if the tumor returns.
Why it matters
Young people with Shh medulloblastoma face near-certain death if they have Shh-α tumors with TP53 mutations, or harsh radiation side effects and grim outcomes after relapse if they have Shh-δ tumors. Using U1 mutation status to predict who responds to checkpoint inhibitors, and building CAR T cells against tumor-only epitopes, could provide more selective immunotherapies for these patients.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Matija Snuderl
New York University, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Compare epigenetic machinery and gene expression in mature versus primitive regions of human medulloblastoma tissue, using high-resolution genomic and epigenetic profiling.
David Akhavan
University of Kansas, KS·Biomedical Engineering
Develop nanocarriers, tiny drug-carrying particles, that can be loaded into CAR T cells, which are engineered tumor-targeting immune cells, to create a platform for delivering drugs into glioblastoma.
Rebecca Aft
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Medicine & Clinical Research
Evaluate whether an 8-gene bone marrow test for disseminated tumor cells predicts distant metastasis in TNBC patients treated with carboplatin, paclitaxel and nivolumab, with or without cabiralizumab, in a phase II trial.
The school
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: 23 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research.
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