Childhood Brain Tumors at Center of New Research Collaboration

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and China-based BGI-Shenzhen are now collaborating on research into next-generation sequencing to analyze pediatric brain tumors.

The research supports the work of the Childhood Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium, which uses advanced technology to get a better look at tumors at the molecular level — for example, looking at DNA or proteins at play in the brain tumors.

The four pediatric research groups making up the consortium collect and analyze children’s brain tumors. Using next-generation sequencing will offer investigators a deeper and more comprehensive view into the genetics involved in these tumors.

Combining that more in-depth understanding with clinical information gives researchers, physicians and other healthcare providers critical information they can use to treat children with these often devastating brain tumors.

The new research initiative at CHOP will draw on the resources of the state-of-the-art Joint Genome Center BGI@CHOP, which launched in late 2011 and uses next-generation sequencing to find the genes underlying rare and common pediatric diseases.

In collaboration with BGI’s genomics platforms, the new project will support the development of new and more effective forms of therapy targeted to each patient’s specific subtype of brain tumor.

“These important efforts are made possible through the further extension of CHOP’s productive collaboration with BGI, a world-class institution in the global genome sequencing arena that is using its scientific expertise and technological know-how to improve medical research,” said Tom Curran, PhD, FRS, deputy scientific director of the CHOP Research Institute.

If you’d like more information on this collaboration, check out the press release on the CHOP Research Institute website.