Hi there! During the following weeks, our blog will be dedicated to our SIOP Young Investigator Award winners!
Please meet Laura Donovan, YI from the UK, in her own words.
I am a research paediatric neuro-oncologist, with a strong focus in immuno-oncology, molecular medicine, and functional genomics for the development of novel therapies against paediatric medulloblastomas. I have extensive expertise in immunogenomics and how this pertains to candidate target discovery and preclinical modeling for direct translation to clinical therapies.
As a previous Fellow at The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto) and Young Investigator for the SU2C-SBF Immunogenomics Paediatric Dream Team, I established the use of Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cells for the effective treatment of paediatric cerebellar brain tumours. This led to several prominent discoveries including novel locoregional therapeutic delivery for the treatment of medulloblastomas (Nature Medicine, 2020) and a first-in-child clinical trial for posterior fossa A ependymomas (NCT02442297).
I have also been co-team lead on additional studies, profiling the single cell transcriptome of paediatric medulloblastomas and ependymomas, leading to a better understanding of the tumour-immune microenvironment and the cell of origin of childhood cerebellar tumours, (Nature, 2019).
As newly established Principle Investigator and Assistant Professor at University College London, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, my research programme aims to enhance survival outcomes for paediatric medulloblastoma patients. My group focuses on functional- and immuno-genomics, and the translation of immune biology into novel therapeutic strategies using optimal and clinically relevant immune-replete animal models, improving the clinical potential of modern therapies for recurrent paediatric medulloblastoma.
Comments
Post a Comment