We have an NIH-funded postdoctoral position available immediately to study BRAF-driven pediatric brain cancers. You will use ex vivo and in vivo somatic chromosomal engineering to model and characterize pediatric brain tumors driven by the BRAF oncogene, with a particular focus on tumors driven by BRAF gene fusions.
The goals include defining the molecular mechanisms driving these tumors and responsible for their unique biological and clinical features, and developing and testing novel therapeutic strategies.
Contact us for additional details and check out our work on CRISPR-based chromosomal engineering.
Some background:
Maddalo, D., Manchado, E., Concepcion, C.P., Bonetti, C., Vidigal, J.A., Han, Y.-C., Ogrodowski, P., Crippa, A., Rekhtman, N., and de Stanchina, E. (2014).
In vivo engineering of oncogenic chromosomal rearrangements with the CRISPR/Cas9 system.
Nature 516, 423-427.
Perez, A., Pritykin, Y., Vidigal, J., Chhangawala, S., Zamparo, L., Leslie, C., and Ventura, A. (2017).
GuideScan software for improved single and paired CRISPR guide RNA design.
Nature Biotechnology, 2017 Apr;35(4):347-349. PMID: 28263296. PMCID: PMC5607865
Cook, PJ., Rozario, T. Kannan, R., de Leon, ES., Drilon, A., Rosenblum, M.K., Scaltriti, M., Benezra, R., and Ventura, A. (2017).
Somatic chromosomal engineering identifies BCAN-NTRK1 as a potent glioma driver and therapeutic target.
Nat Commun. 2017;8:15987. PubMed PMID: 28695888 PMCID:PMC5508201.
And a couple of reviews:
Ventura, A., and Dow, L. (2018)
Modeling Cancer in the CRISPR Era.
Annual Review of Cancer Biology Vol 2. Issue 1
Maddalo, D., and Ventura, A. (2016).
Somatic Engineering of Oncogenic Chromosomal Rearrangements: A Perspective.
Cancer Research 76, 4918-4923.
The Ventura Lab 