Sujatha Venkataraman, PhD

Novel Therapeutic Antibody against a Fatal Brain Tumor in Children

This project aims to address the urgent need for effective treatments for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), an aggressive brain tumor in children with a 0% 5-year survival rate since 1950. Current therapies like radiation and chemotherapy have limited success, and surgical resection is not feasible due to the tumor's location in a critical brain region. The researchers have identified CD99 as a promising target in DIPG and developed a novel monoclonal antibody (10D1 mAb) that showed superior efficacy in preclinical models compared to existing antibodies. They plan to engineer a fully humanized version of the antibody (HuCD99-IgG4) and conduct comprehensive preclinical studies to determine its safety and effectiveness in patient-derived xenograft models. The team's expertise in brain tumor biology, antibody development, preclinical testing, and clinical trials positions them to advance HuCD99-IgG4 as a potential treatment for DIPG patients. Collaborator: Rajeev Vibhakar, MD, PhD, MPH/MSPH