Drs. Gutmann and Fisher at the CTF Gala in New York City
Together with Dr. Michael Fisher at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD has spearheaded a new groundbreaking project recently funded by the Children’s Tumor Foundation. The purpose of this project is to establish an international collaborative research consortium focused on low-grade brain tumors (gliomas) in children with Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1).
The NF1 Low-Grade Glioma (LGG) Synodos Initiative brings together nine investigators from the United States and Germany to identify risk factors and treatments uniquely targeted to these common brain tumors in children with NF1. This exciting one-of-a-kind study seeks to (1) apply advanced genomic and genetic discovery methods to identify new genes involved in LGG growth, (2) define the mechanisms by which LGG tumors escape treatment, and (3) develop novel therapies that block both the cancer cells and the non-cancer cells in these tumors.
Using a variety of cutting-edge technologies and approaches, this group involves Dr. Gutmann and his colleagues at Washington University, Drs. Michael Fisher, Adam Resnick and Angela Waanders at the University of Pennsylvania, Drs. William Weiss and Joanna Phillips at the University of California-San Francisco, and Drs. Olaf Witt, David Jones, and Stefan Pfister at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.
Synodos for NF1 was conceived by the Children’s Tumor Foundation to establish a “dream team” of scientists to accelerate the process of drug discovery for NF1-LGG. For more information, please visit the Children’s Tumor Foundation website.