Matija Snuderl
New York University, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in children, making up about 20% of childhood brain tumors. Nearly 30% of patients cannot be cured.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Genetics
Neuroscience
- Topics
medulloblastoma
pediatric brain tumor
childhood cancer
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Aug 2026
What they work on
- Compare epigenetic machinery and gene expression in mature versus primitive regions of human medulloblastoma tissue, using high-resolution genomic and epigenetic profiling.
- Define how EZH2, the gene-silencing enzyme of the PRC2 complex, controls tumor cell maturation in a genetically relevant mouse model of SHH-driven medulloblastoma.
- Test the efficacy and toxicity of combined EZH2 and Sonic hedgehog pathway inhibitors delivered by tumor vessel-targeted nanoparticles that cross the blood-brain barrier in SHH medulloblastoma mice.
More about the research
Survivors often suffer lasting harm from radiation, including memory and learning problems, infertility and slowed growth, and fewer than 20% live independently as adults. Most of the tumor is made of primitive, immature nerve-precursor cells. Yet some tumors contain patches that mature on their own into non-dividing, brain-like tissue, and patients with these patches survive longer. The project asks what drives this maturation and whether doctors could trigger it on purpose.
Why it matters
Children with medulloblastoma need treatments that work better and cause less lasting damage than current radiation-based care. Forcing tumor cells to mature into non-dividing, brain-like tissue by blocking EZH2 could become a less toxic strategy that complements standard therapy. Delivery by nanoparticles that cross the blood-brain barrier could also inform treatment of other brain tumors.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Nazanin Majd
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
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.
Peter Lewis
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Biochemistry
Define how residual PRC2 activity, the leftover gene-silencing capacity remaining after inhibition, promotes growth of pediatric glioma cells carrying the H3 K27M oncohistone or the EZHIP protein, using genetic and genomic approaches.
Dong Zhou
University of Connecticut, CT·Physiology
Determine the mechanistic role of extracellular matrix protein 1 (ECM1), a secreted matrix protein switched on within hours of injury, in forming the kidney microenvironment after acute kidney injury, using ex vivo approaches.
The school
New York University: 72 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 540 research doctorates a year.
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