Epitranscriptomic characterization of pediatric central nervous system tumors

Cancer cells adopt many ways to control expression of genes that increase growth and invasion of the tumor. High-grade central nervous system (CNS) tumors in pediatric patients are particularly aggressive and many patients do not have curative therapy options. Many of these high-grade tumors are characterized by specific genetic alterations. Following transcription, little is known about the fate of RNA, which functions to tune gene expression that can lead to increased tumor growth. We seek to identify ways that cancer cells use RNA to carry signals that cause tumors to be more aggressive and can be used to develop new treatment strategies against them.