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Our foundation supports pre-clinical, clinical trials and other research areas that move the needle in changing outcomes for DIPG DMG patients.
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Giedre Krenciute - Improving T-cell therapies for DIPGs. The significance of the proposed study is as follows: 1) develop improved cell-based immunotherapy for extremely aggressive, hard-to-treat pediatric brain tumor; 2) investigate if CAR T cell persistence can be improved by manipulating T cell negative regulators, and 3) use immune competent mouse models to identify key limitations of cellular immunotherapy against DIPGs. | |
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Dr. Javad Nazarian and Aaron Diaz- Mapping DMG response and resistance to therapy. The overall objective of this project is to elucidate the genetics and epigenetics map of DMG resistance to therapy. We seek to define the cellular composition of treatment resistant tumors, identify gene regulators of resistance phenotypes, and correlate this with clinical covariates. Our rationale for these studies is to determine biomarkers of treatment sensitivity that will drive inclusion criteria in future clinical trials. Our foundation was a funding partner for this study through DDRFA. | |
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Dr. Sujatha Venkataraman, University of Colorado - Using Logic-Gated CAR-T Cells and Combination Therapy to Improve Efficacy and Safety of DIPG Treatment. This study will also inform us about the use of combination therapies to increase the functionality and efficacy of our novel CARs. This work will expand our understanding of how to use logic-gated CARs optimally to increase both safety and efficacy against low-antigen expressing tumor cells. | |
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DMG-ACT- The main focus of the group is to find effective combination therapies for children diagnosed with DIPG and DMG. The DMG-Act group consists of an international and multidisciplinary team of experts across multiple institutions, with the combined aims of: i) Elucidating drug mechanisms of action. ii) Creating robust in vitro and in vivo data on drug efficacy as single and combination therapy. iii) Creating rapid and efficient pipelines for mapping drug targets and identify clinically relevant predictive biomarkers. | |
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PNOC022 - A Combination Therapy Trial using an Adaptive Platform Design for Children and Young Adults with Diffuse Midline Gliomas (DMGs) including Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas (DIPGs) at Initial Diagnosis, Post-Radiation Therapy and at Time of Progression. | |
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PNOC007 - H3.3K27M Specific Peptide Vaccine Combined with poly-ICLC and Nivolumab for the Treatment of newly diagnosed HLA-A2 (02:01)+ H3.3K27M Positive Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) and newly diagnosed HLA-A2 (02:01)+ H3.3K27M Positive Midline Gliomas | |
Our foundation is also funding partners for these free of cost patient services.
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Brainstorm Summit - Our foundation has been involved with the Brainstorm Summit and Tough2gether breakfast since its inception. Our foundation directors, Sarva Channarajurs and Rachna Prasad have been speakers at these events. We are involved in the committees and also sponsors of these events which are really bringing the patient community, researchers, government agencies and industries together to provide up to date information and influence changes needed for better outcomes for patient families. Brainstorm Summit is part of Curefest, which is held during National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, CureFest for Childhood Cancer’s mission is to make childhood cancer research a national priority by uniting the childhood cancer community, the general public and government officials as one voice against childhood cancer. | |