Matthew Barkovich, MD
Neuroradiologist
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital
Dr. Matthew Barkovich is a pediatric neuroradiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. He specializes in the imaging of diseases involving the brain and spine in children.
He received his medical degree from UC San Diego School of Medicine (2013), and then completed a one-year internship at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA (2014). He completed his diagnostic radiology residency at UCSF in 2018. During his final year of residency, Dr. Barkovich was a Research Fellow in the 2017-2018 NIH T32 Biomedical Imaging Training Program where he focused his research on neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) and how imaging abnormalities in NF1 patients correlate with clinical phenotype. In 2019, Dr. Barkovich completed a fellowship in Neuroradiology at UCSF.
Dr. Barkovich was named the 2014 Intern of the Year at Highland Hospital, received the Resident Research grant from the Margulis Society in 2016, and was a recipient of the American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology Derek Harwood Nash Award in 2018 for his work developing a pediatric hindbrain atlas. His research is focused on using advanced imaging to better understand the molecular pathways that drive neurodevelopmental disorders and normal brain development.
PATRICIA BAXTER, MD, MBA
PEDIATRIC NEURO ONCOLOGY
TEXAS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Dr. Patricia Baxter is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and a pediatric neuro-oncologist at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers. She is a member of the Developmental Therapeutics and Brian Tumor Programs at Texas Children’s Hospital and specializes in treating children with brain and spinal cord tumors. Dr. Baxter’s research is focused on development of early phase clinical trials for pediatric brain tumors.
Jason Fangusaro, MD
PEDIATRIC NEURO ONCOLOGY
CHILDREN’S HEALTHCARE OF ATLANTA
Dr. Jason Fangusaro is Director of Developmental Therapeutics at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Dr. Fangusaro is also Professor of Pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine and the Carter S. Martin Endowed Chair. As a clinical member of the pediatric neuro-oncology team, he specializes in treating children with central nervous system malignancies, including brain and spinal cord tumors. He is a member of the Children’s Oncology Group Brain Tumor Steering Committee, serves as the Vice Chair of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium, Is Co-Director of the Radiologic Assessment in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology (RAPNO) initiative and partners with the pharmaceutical industry on investigator-initiated trials. He holds professional memberships with American Society of Clinical Oncology, Society for Neuro-Oncology and Children’s Oncology Group. Dr. Fangusaro’s primary area of research is the development of early phase clinical trials, novel therapeutics and relevant biologic correlates in an effort to improve survival outcomes and minimize toxicities. He is a member of both the pediatric low-grade glioma (pLGG) and central nervous system germ cell tumor (CNS GCT) international consensus panels, and also serves as the principal investigator and co-investigator on numerous national clinical trials.
Ashley Plant – Fox, MD
PEDIATRIC NEURO ONCOLOGY
LURIE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Dr. Ashley S. Plant-Fox is a Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and attending neuro-oncologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital. Dr. Plant-Fox completed her medical degree at Stanford University School of Medicine and pediatrics training at University of California, Los Angeles. She went on to complete her pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship training and additional training in neuro-oncology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Plant-Fox’s research is focused on immunophenotyping of pediatric brain tumors and early phase clinical trials for immunotherapy in malignant brain tumors. Dr. Plant-Fox is currently the lead Principal Investigator for a multi-center, phase I, open-label, plus expansion clinical trial for rHSC-DIPGVax in combination with Balstilimab and Zalifrelimab for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma/diffuse midline glioma. rHSC-DIPGVax is an off-the-shelf neo-antigen heat shock protein vaccine containing 16 peptides reflecting neo-epitopes found in the majority of DIPG and DMG tumors. Dr. Plant-Fox is the endowed A.M. Khokhar Research Scholar and Will Irwin Research Scholar. Her work is funded by the Will Irwin Fund through the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation, the Team Jack Foundation, the RDL Foundation, the Elerding Foundation, the LiamBear Strong Foundation, the Shaw Foundation, and the Ross K. MacNeill Foundation.
Gerald A. Grant, MD
Neurosurgeon
Duke Health Systems
Dr. Gerald A. Grant is a neurosurgeon, scientist, and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Duke University. Clinically, Grant specializes in treating brain tumors, medically refractory epilepsy, Chiari malformation, and concussion. His research
focuses on innovative ways to open the blood-brain barrier to improve the delivery of novel drugs and immunotherapy to target brain tumors. Grant is an investigator on several initiatives funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) relating to brain tumors, focused ultrasound, brain tumor immunotherapy, and concussion. He is an author on more than 300 peer-reviewed journal articles, holds several leadership positions nationally, and serves on multiple editorial boards in neurosurgery.
Adam Green, MD
PEDIATRIC NEURO ONCOLOGY
CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF COLORADO
Dr. Adam Green is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and an attending pediatric neuro-oncologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. He completed his undergraduate degree in neurobiology at Dartmouth College and attended medical school at NYU. He served as a resident and chief resident in pediatrics at the University of Colorado and as a pediatric hematology-oncology fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital. There, he trained in translational research in pediatric brain tumors with Drs. Andrew Kung and Stu Orkin, and in childhood cancer disparities with Dr. Carlos Rodriguez Galindo. His lab investigates novel targets and therapeutic strategies in the treatment of pediatric high-grade glioma (HGG), including diffuse midline glioma (DMG). There are several clinical trials that have opened based on work from his lab, including ACNS1821, the current lead COG trial for newly diagnosed pediatric HGG and DMG patients, which he chairs. He also studies causes and interventions for demographic and socioeconomic outcomes disparities in childhood cancer. Dr. Green has had funding from NIH, St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, and Hyundai Hope on Wheels, among others.
Nalin Gupta, MD, PhD
Neurosurgeon
UCSF Benoiff Children’s Hospital
Dr. Nalin Gupta is Chief of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at UCSF, and a Professor in the Departments of Neurological Surgery and Pediatrics. His clinical and research interests are directed towards neuro-oncology and directed delivery of therapeutic agents to the brain. He helped promote the feasibility and safety of surgical biopsy for DIPG/DMG tumors in the United States. He was also the lead surgeon for two early phase clinical trials evaluating the safety of convection enhanced delivery for DIPG/DMG. He is actively involved with the Pacific Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC).
Lindsay Kilburn, MD
BIO COMING SOON
Carl Koschmann, MD
PEDIATRIC NEURO ONCOLOGY
CS MOTT CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Dr. Carl Koschmann is a pediatric neuro-oncologist and the Clinical Scientific Director of the University of Michigan Chad Carr Pediatric Brain Tumor Center, and cares for children and young adults with brain tumors. He specializes in the research and treatment of high-risk brain tumors, including high-grade glioma, diffuse midline glioma (DMG), and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). His NIH-funded laboratory explores mechanisms by which mutations in these tumors drive their formation and impact treatment response.
Dr. Koschmann also serves as the Co-Scientific Chair of the Children’s Brain Tumor Network, which is the largest pediatric brain tumor data and sample repository. He is the PI/Co-PI for multiple early phase studies in pHGG/DMG for which his lab performs analysis of correlate tumor and spinal fluid samples.
“The DIPG/DMG National Brain Tumor Board is a game changer for families and referring physicians of children with DIPG or DMG. This will allow families to consolidate their time and effort and have a panel of experts review their child’s case and provide advice in real time. This will be used primarily for families at major “decision forks” — at diagnosis, or post-radiation or at recurrence. We are very excited to be a part of this program which is truly unique.”
David Mirsky, MD
pediatric neuroradiologist
Children’s Hospital Colorado
Dr. David Mirsky is a pediatric neuroradiologist at the Children’s Hospital Colorado at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He specializes in the imaging of diseases involving the brain and spine in children.
Dr. Mirsky received his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY (2005) where he received a Senior Research Fellowship Award in Neuroradiology assessing Multifocal Intracerebral Hemorrhages Following Decompression of Chronic Subdural Hematomas. He then completed a one-year internship at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, NJ (2006), followed by a diagnostic radiology residency at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, NY (2010). During his final year of residency, Dr. Mirsky served as Chief Resident. Dr. Mirsky went on to complete an Adult Neuroradiology Fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (2011) and a Pediatric Neuroradiology Fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (2012).
Dr. Mirsky’s research focuses include neuro-oncology, specifically pediatric adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma, abusive head trauma, and fetal imaging. He is currently President-elect for the American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology (ASPNR).
Sabine Mueller, MD,PhD
PEDIATRIC NEURO ONCOLOGY
UCSF BENIOFF CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Dr. Sabine Mueller is a board-certified neurologist, pediatrician and neuro-oncologist with a research program focused on novel therapies for pediatric gliomas and other malignant brain tumors. She is a Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. She received her PhD in the Department of Biochemistry in Hamburg, Germany generating gene expression libraries for adult glioblastomas for target identification. Prof. Mueller completed her clinical training in Boston as well as at UCSF. Within the Brain Tumor Research Center located in the Helen Diller Cancer Center at UCSF, she conducts preclinical studies in pediatric brain tumor models to support the rationale for the design of early phase clinical trials for children with brain tumors with a specific focus on children with diffuse midline gliomas (DMGs). On the translational site, she is leading the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (www.pnoc.us) – a now 22 US based-member institution clinical trial consortium with international expansion (Zurich, Switzerland; Australia; Israel and Netherlands) dedicated to developing new therapies for pediatric and AYA brain tumor patients. She also serves as the clinical lead of the DMG Centre at the Children’s Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland. Together with Dr. Nazarian she is also leading the DMG working group of PNOC. Prof. Mueller has extensive experience in bringing new agents into the clinic-chairing or co-chairing over 15 clinical, multi-center trials and leading large multi-centers studies. She has supervised many multi-site tumor boards and is overseeing the Diffuse Midline Glioma/Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma National Brain Tumor Board.
Nicholas Vitanza, MD
PEDIATRIC NEURO ONCOLOGY
Seattle CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Dr. Nicholas Vitanza is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a pediatric neuro-oncologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He directs the Vitanza Lab at Seattle Research Institute’s Ben Town Center for Childhood Cancer Research and he serves as Seattle Children’s CNS CAR T cell Lead and DIPG Research Lead. Dr. Vitanza completed his pediatric oncology fellowship under the mentorship of Drs. Bill Carroll and Elizabeth Raetz at NYU before completing a neuro-oncology fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Michelle Monje at Stanford. In the Monje Lab his post-doctoral work focused on combinatorial targeted therapy for DIPG was published in Science Translational Medicine and Cancer Cell. In 2016, he joined Seattle Children’s where he has written and directed 3 CNS CAR T cell trials that have delivered over 260 intracranial CAR T cell doses to children with recurrent CNS tumors and DIPG – with preliminary findings published in Nature Medicine. Through his collaborative laboratory and clinical research programs, Dr. Vitanza aims to optimize epigenetic and immunotherapeutic targeting of pediatric CNS tumors with a goal to rapidly translate findings to the clinic and improve the lives of affected children.
Sebastian Waszak, PhD
Professor of Neurology
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
Dr Sebastian Waszak is an Associate Adjunct Professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Head of the Computational Oncology Group at the Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM). He obtained his PhD in Bioengineering/
Cheng-Chia Wu, MD, PhD
RADIATION ONCOLOGIST
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IRVING MEDICAL CENTER
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