"I was incredibly honored to have been selected as a Sontag Foundation Distinguished Scientist shortly after launching my independent research program at St. Jude. Being part of the Sontag ‘family’ has been academically enriching, enabled new friendships and collaborations, and gives me the sense of being a lifetime member of a unique group of outstanding scientists and clinicians focused on the common goal of improving treatments and outcomes for those affected by brain cancer."

About DSA-Funded Research

The foundation of our work is based upon recent comprehensive next-generation genomic analyses through which we have discovered the genes, pathways, and molecular processes recurrently altered in patients with medulloblastoma. Our current focus is to summarize these somatic alterations in the context of medulloblastoma subgroups and functionally validate candidate driver genes and pathways using a variety of technically advanced in vivo methodologies. In addition, we are working closely with the Division of Neuro-Oncology at St. Jude to improve understanding of how specific genomic variants correlate with the demographic and clinical features of medulloblastoma patients treated on clinical trials conducted at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.