The Interplay Between Histone Mutations and Replication Stress in Shaping Glioma Phenotypes
Pediatric high-grade gliomas are a lethal disease of childhood with a lack of curative treatments. They have been found to be caused by mutations in a group of proteins called histones, which help cells regulate which genes are turned on or off at any one time. This project seeks to understand how histone mutations help pediatric high-grade gliomas grow, with the hope that our findings will help with the development of novel approaches to treat these devastating tumors.
Project Goals:
The goal of this project is to understand how histone mutations interact with other proteins in cells which help turn normal cells into cancer cells. We hope to understand this so that we can develop new treatments to reverse these changes.
2025 Update:
Diffuse midline gliomas are a lethal and incurable brain tumor of childhood and are defined by mutations in a group of proteins called histones. These mutations result in changes in cells that lead to additional mutations that drive the formation of Diffuse Midline Gliomas. We are working to understand how histone mutations result in cancer cells gaining more mutations, in the hope that we will be able to turn this off in new therapies. Over the last year, we have been successful in generating new models to study the histone mutations and how they steer normal cells towards becoming cancer cells.
