Dr. Angela Hirbe, a medical oncologist and member of the Washington University Neurofibromatosis (NF) Center, recently received a career development award from SARC, an organization dedicated to furthering sarcoma research. This grant will fund research aimed at better understanding the biology behind Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumors (MPNSTs), very aggressive soft tissue sarcomas that are the leading cause of death for patients with NF1.
Dr. Hirbe’s prior studies identified βIII-spectrin as a frequently mutated gene in human MPNSTs, whose function is critical for mouse MPNST growth in vivo. This award will fund studies aimed at defining the role of βIII-spectrin in MPNST development and growth and to assess the utility of βIII-spectrin expression and amino acid-based PET imaging as potential diagnostic and prognostic markers for MPNST development and progression.
Congratulations to Dr. Hirbe for this recognition of her significant contributions to MPNST research. We are delighted that SARC is supporting this important work.