Children's National Medical Center
Washington, United States
Yanxin Pei, PhD, Associate Professor at Children's National Medical Center. The focus of my laboratory is to delineate the complex biology of highly aggressive pediatric brain tumors using innovative mouse models with a goal to identify novel biomarkers and effective intervention targets. Building on extensive training in neuroscience and cancer biology, I pride myself undertaking efforts to identify the cellular and molecular mechanisms of medulloblastoma tumorigenesis. My ambition is to design new state-of-the-art clinical approaches with greater specificity and reduced toxicity to treat pediatric patients with brain tumors, i. e, a new-generation of molecular therapeutic strategies that can be implemented in the context of a developing central nervous systemin in children. Current treatments have proven to be inadequate, and pediatric brain tumors often develop therapeutic resistance, leading to tumor recurrence and reduced patient survival. To combat therapeutic resistance, my team also uses human disease-relevant patient-derived xenografts and investigates the underlying mechanisms. Thus, my laboratory strives to overcome resisting tumor cells and prevent tumor relapse by identifying novel molecular targets, translating them to clinical care, and ultimately improving patient outcomes. In summary, my current research programs comprise three broad areas of research: (I) Generating diverse preclinical mouse models of medulloblastoma and patient-derived xenograft models; (ii) Elucidating the molecular mechanisms of metastasis, therapeutic resistance, and tumor relapse; (iii) identifying novel effective therapeutic approaches to treating the pediatric brain tumors.