Cracking the Histone Code: Characterizing Pediatric Brain Tumor Epigenetics using Cerebrospinal Fluid

Ongoing
Data
Specimen
HGG
DIPG
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CBTN Data

CBTN Specimen

4

CBTN Participants

6

CBTN Samples

Backer

Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS)

The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Faculty Practice Plan

The Frankel Foundation

The Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation

About this

Project

Epigenetics is the collection of outside influences on genes that can affect their protein expression. Researchers hypothesize that tumor epigenetic signatures may serve as biomarkers of disease for diagnosis and may provide insight into tumor growth. The goal of this project is to determine patterns of tumor-specific protein expression in tumor tissue and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collected from children with glioma. Expression patterns of specific proteins known as histones will be correlated with patterns of gene expression to determine their usefulness as biomarkers of disease and response to therapy. This research has the potential to improve clinical outcomes for children with glioma by facilitating safer clinical diagnosis, informing effective therapeutic agents, and enabling monitoring of treatment response. All by using clinically accessible CSF specimens in lieu of tumor tissue. The Children's Brain Tumor Network contributed to this project by providing cerebral spinal fluid and tissue samples and by providing access to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas. Matched CSF and tumor tissue specimens are required to conduct the proposed research. The CBTN contains this precious resource from children with low grade, high grade and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, with multiple collection events in some instances, making it’s contribution invaluable to this project.

Ask The

Scientists

Ask the scientists

What are the goals of this project?

Researchers will analyze tumor tissue and CSF from pediatric glioma patients in an effort to identify biomarkers that could be used for diagnostics and as treatment targets.

What is the impact of this project?

The proposed research could enable improved, faster and safer diagnostic measures, effective therapeutic agents, and accurate monitoring of treatment response in patients with pediatric gliomas.

Why is the CBTN request important to this project?

The Children’s Brain Tumor Network provides researchers with rare samples across many pediatric tumor types, contributing to the broad impact of this research.

Specimen Data

The Children's Brain Tumor Network contributed to this project by providing cerebral spinal fluid and tissue samples and by providing access to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas.