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University of California San Francisco

745 Parnassus Ave
San Francisco, CA 94143
United States

Mentor Name: Eric Sweet-Cordero

University of California San Francisco

Mentor Name: Bo Qiu

University of California San Francisco

Childhood cancers are caused by genetic mutations that lead to changes in proteins that are essential for normal human development. The protein MYCN is the cause of many of the most aggressive pediatric cancers, including high-risk neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma. One of the holy grails of pediatric cancer drug development is finding a way to directly target MYCN in patient tumors, but this has been elusive. To address this major unmet need, we have developed an international team of scientists with complementary expertise to attack this problem with innovative new technologies.

Medulloblastoma (MB) is a devastating tumor of the cerebellum and is the most common malignant childhood brain tumor. It is a major cause of disease and mortality in children. There are currently limited options for therapy, consisting of surgical resection, radiotherapy in patients over 36 months, and chemotherapy. SHH-subtype medulloblastoma arises from a particular cell type in the cerebellum called the Granule Cell Progenitor (GCP) and accounts for 30% of all MB. It tends to arise in very young children and have a poor prognosis.

Mentor Name: William Weiss

Mentor Name: Zulekha Qadeer

Mentor Name: Amit Sabnis

Project Team

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