Labs

Nazarian Laboratory

About the Lab

Brain tumors are now contributing to the most cancer-related deaths in children. One of the deadliest tumors we face within pediatric neuro-oncology are diffuse midline gliomas (DMG). Most DMGs occur in the pons and are referred to as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). Over 2,000 children and young adults are diagnosed with these tumors in the United States and Europe annually. Decades of research and clinical trials have not achieved any improvement in the clinical outcome for these patients and most die within a year from their initial diagnosis. Applying genomic-based technologies, we have made great progress in shedding light on the underlying molecular alterations of these tumors and today have a much better understanding that DMGs represent heterogeneous groups of tumors that require further stratification when developing new therapies. 

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Featured Publications

  • Harmonization of postmortem donations for pediatric brain tumors and molecular characterization of diffuse midline gliomas

    Kambhampati M, Panditharatna E, Yadavilli S, Saoud K, Lee S, Eze A, Almira-Suarez MI, Hancock L, Bonner ER, Gittens J, Stampar M, Gaonkar K, Resnick AC, Kline C, Ho CY, Waanders AJ, Georgescu MM, Rance NE, Kim Y, Johnson C, Rood BR, Kilburn LB, Hwang EI, Mueller S, Packer RJ, Bornhorst M, Nazarian J PMID: 32616776; PMCID: PMC7331588. Sci Rep 10(1):10954. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-67764-2 July (2020)

  • Detection and monitoring of tumor associated circulating DNA in patient biofluids

    Bonner ER, Saoud K, Lee S, Panditharatna E, Kambhampati M, Mueller S, Nazarian J PMID: 31233019 J Vis Exp (148). doi: 10.3791/59721 June (2019)

  • Differential expression of Wilms' tumor protein in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma

    Lee S, Kambhampati M, Yadavilli S, Gordish-Dressman H, Santi M, Cruz CR, Packer RJ, Almira-Suarez MI, Hwang EI, Nazarian J J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 78(5):380-388. doi: 10.1093/jnen/nlz021 May (2019)

  • Clinically relevant and minimally invasive tumor surveillance of pediatric diffuse midline gliomas using patient-derived liquid biopsy

    Panditharatna E, Kilburn LB, Aboian MS, Kambhampati M, Gordish-Dressman H, Magge SN, Gupta N, Myseros JS, Hwang EI, Kline C, Crawford JR, Warren KE, Cha S, Liang WS, Berens ME, Packer RJ, Resnick AC, Prados M, Mueller S, Nazarian J PubMed PMID: 30322880; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6279526. Clin Cancer Res. 24(23):5850-5859. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-18-1345 December (2018)

  • Spatial and temporal homogeneity of driver mutations in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma

    Nikbakht H, Panditharatna E, Mikael LG, Li R, Gayden T, Osmond M, Ho CY, Kambhampati M, Hwang EI, Faury D, Siu A, Papillon-Cavanagh S, Bechet D, Ligon KL, Ellezam B, Ingram WJ, Stinson C, Moore AS, Warren KE, Karamchandani J, Packer RJ, Jabado N, Majewski J, Nazarian J PMCID: PMC4823825 Nature Com. 7:11185 (2016)
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