Lara Marquez Y Marco, an undergraduate researcher in the Washington University NF Center, was recently awarded a summer Pediatric Oncology Student Training (POST) Program grant from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. For her summer project, Lara will work with senior postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Jit Chatterjee, in the laboratory of Dr. David Gutmann, to explore the relationship […]
The laboratory of Dr. Angela Hirbe, along with collaborators in the Largaespada and Wood labs at the University of Minnesota, the Pratilas lab at Johns Hopkins University, and the Gosline lab have just published a novel three-dimensional MPNST culture system to test novel therapeutic combinations. They hope this system will allow for high throughput testing of […]
By St. Louis Children’s Hospital Logan is a 7-year-old who not only loves to be around others but is also just one belt away from a black belt in Taekwondo and enjoys playing Minecraft and Roblox. Three years ago, Logan was diagnosed with NF1. For Logan, his NF included the thickening of the optic nerves […]
Dr. Dana Borcherding, a senior scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Angela Hirbe, recently found that the combination of two drugs targeting different growth control pathways in MPNST cells dramatically decreased tumor growth in mice. In their studies, they combined a TYK2 inhibitor with a MEK inhibitor to achieve this dramatic effect with minimal toxicity. […]
Dr. Yuan Pan, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, was recently awarded a three-year grant from the Gilbert Family Foundation Vision Restoration Initiative to study how NF1 mutations in brain cells called oligodendroglial cells change their interactions with the optic nerve. In this grant, Dr. Pan’s team will work with Dr. Corina Anastasaki, Research […]
Dr. Susan Maloney, Research Assistant Professor in Psychiatry, was recently awarded a one-year grant from the Washington University Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) to study social behavior in mice with different Nf1 gene mutations. In this grant proposal, Dr. Maloney will collaborate with Dr. Corina Anastasaki, Research Assistant Professor in Neurology, to identify the autism-related behaviors in Nf1-mutant […]
The Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF) has announced a groundbreaking 3-year study, which it will fund for nearly $2 million, to determine if a DNA-based blood test can offer better understanding and ultimately earlier diagnosis of cancer predisposition in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) patients. Approximately 7-15% percent of NF1 patients may develop malignant peripheral nerve sheath […]