I am the Director of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Program at St. Louis Children's Hospital (SLCH), and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. I am a member of the Central Nervous System (CNS) Committee at the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), and a study committee member for the CNS non-germinomatous germ cell tumor clinical trial (ACNS2021). Additionally, I am the institutional Principal Investigator (PI) for the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology consortium (PNOC) – one of the largest consortia in North America conducting early phase clinical research in brain tumors – where I also serve as a member of the scientific committee.

Like many other Pediatric Neuro-Oncologists at large academic institutions, my responsibilities and interests include patient care, research, and education. As for patient care, I was awarded one of the highly esteemed accolades at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) for excellence in patient care in 2016 (Partners in Care, Partners in Hope Family Centered Care Award). As far as education, I was honored to receive the Distinguished Teaching Award from Saint Louis University School of Medicine in 2015. On the research aspect, I currently lead the early-phase clinical trials for the Neuro-Oncology Program at SLCH. Moreover, I am the principal investigator for several clinical trials in a variety of pediatric brain tumors. Two of my clinical trials have been approved by PNOC; the first trial will test the feasibility of administering Natural Killer (NK) cells in patients with recurrent malignant brain tumors, while the second trial was also approved by Novartis pharmaceuticals and entails testing the combination of everolimus and trametinib in children with recurrent low-grade gliomas. Lastly, I will be leading the upcoming COG trial for CNS germinomas, a rare brain tumor that affects children and young adults.

Pediatric neuro-oncology, brain and spinal cord tumors.

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