Research And Grants

Targeting FOXR2 in Diffuse Midline Gliomas

Diffuse midline glioma (DMG) is a deadly pediatric brain cancer. Despite radiation treatment, nearly all children diagnosed with the disease succumb to it with a median survival of 12 months. There have been few advancements in treatment, and current treatment has no curative intent. Therefore, there is a significant need to develop new therapeutic strategies to improve the terrible outcomes for these children and improve quality of life for patients and their families. Looking at genes that are turned on or off in a particular type of cancer can be helpful to figure out what is causing the cancer to grow. One such gene which we found to be turned on in DMG is FOXR2. Interestingly, FOXR2 is normally turned off in normal brain. We have previously studied how FOXR2 is turned on and off. When it is turned off, DMG cancer cells die. In this project, we will study how to turn FOXR2 off using small interfering RNA (siRNA) that can be delivered to the brain tumor. We will use patient DMG cell models as well as mouse models of DMG. Ultimately, our goal is to determine whether we can target FOXR2 in DMGs to improve outcomes for children and their families impacted by this terrible disease.