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SNP Analysis
Novel Therapies for Recurrent Meningiomas
MRI Imaging
SNP Analysis
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Rona Carroll, Ph. D., of the Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Very little is known about the genetic events responsible for initiating meningiomas or, at times, their malignant progression. Dr. Carroll and her team are working to identify these genetic alterations in both benign meningiomas and those that have transformed into malignant tumors to increase understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in meningioma pathogenesis.
With BSF funding, Dr. Carroll’s powerful collaboration with Dr. Marco Giovannini (a world expert in the development of mouse models for benign tumors and Dr. Carroll’s partner in the development of mouse models for meningiomas [see Mouse Models in the Research Accomplishments section) takes a new direction - to use single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis to identify and validate in biological models the genomic alterations underlying progression and malignant transformation of human meningioma.
The candidate genes identified in Dr. Carrol’s study will facilitate the identification of novel diagnostic and prognostic markers for meningioma, which will guide the development of new therapeutic strategies.
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Novel Therapies for Recurrent Meningiomas
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Rona Carroll, Ph. D., of the Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Meningiomas can reoccur after surgery or radiation. The recurrence rate depends upon the completeness of the removal, where the tumor is located, and the tumor’s aggressiveness. The goal of this project is to develop polymeric microspheres as a local delivery system for therapeutic agents for recurrent meningiomas. Biodegradable microspheres represent an evolving technology for delivery of drugs to the central nervous system. The microparticles are made of poly (lactide-co-glycolide), which has been shown to be safe and promising for drug delivery into the brain because they are biodegradable and biocompatible with brain tissue. Due to their size, these microspheres can be easily implanted into discrete areas of the brain without causing damage to the surrounding tissue. This targeted local therapy will increase tumor treatment response and ultimately improve patient outcome. This work is being done in collaboration with Dr. Marcelle Machluf at the Technion University in Haifa, Israel.
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MRI Imaging
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Ron Kikinis, Director of the Surgical Planning Laboratory of the Department of Radiology of the Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School
Meningioma patients regularly undergo Magnetic Resonance (MR) scans resulting in a series of scans showing the development of the meningioma over a period of time. Clinicians analyze the series of these scans to detect tumor growth. This analysis, however, is time consuming and difficult as clinicians have to consider a variety of factors. The goal of Dr. Kikinis’ project is to develop a tool that automatically determines the growth of meningiomas.
Dr. Kikinis’ current tool performs several steps to detect the growth of meningioma in a patient. It first aligns each scan to a common reference to account for differences in head positions across the time series. It then removes common MR artifacts from the images, such as noise. Furthermore, it outlines and measures the meningioma in each scan, and compares the volume of meningioma across the scans. Any difference in volume between consecutive scans indicates a growth in the corresponding.
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