Dr. Cynthia Hawkins is part of the Crazy 8 team studying a vaccine for childhood cancer predisposition syndromes.

Dr. Hawkins’ clinical practice includes both surgical and autopsy pediatric neuropathology. She is best known for her expertise in pediatric brain tumors and has a research lab devoted to pediatric glioma. Her research interests include molecular pathogenesis and therapeutics for pediatric glioma and clinical implementation of novel diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic markers for pediatric brain tumors. 

The Hawkins laboratory has contributed to the clinical, morphologic and genetic characterization of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and pediatric-type glioma as well as the clinical and biologic implications of mutant histones. The Hawkins lab is devoted to learning how gliomas form, how they progress and how they can best be diagnosed accurately and targeted therapeutically.