The Brain Tumour Charity is proud to announce that we have six new Future Leaders. These talented scientists and clinicians have been awarded fundings for a total of over £1.3m for their innovative research projects that aim to improve our understanding of brain tumours and develop new treatments.
Their work spans a range of topics, from identifying new targets for immune therapy to characterising the communication between brain tumours and muscles.
Dr. Mara De Martino
Based in the USA at the Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. De Martino is investigating the connection between lipid metabolism and immune escape in glioblastoma. Her goal is to identify molecules that promote treatment resistance and develop novel treatments targeting lipid pathways to enhance immunotherapy effectiveness against brain cancers.
Dr. Ola Rominiyi
Based in the UK at the University of Sheffield, Dr. Rominiyi is researching DNA repair in glioblastoma on a cellular level to identify treatment weaknesses. His work aims to create new treatment strategies with DNA repair inhibitor drugs that are more effective and have fewer side effects.
Dr. Jessica Taylor
Based in the UK at the University of Cambridge, Dr. Taylor is developing a novel strategy called ADCIPs to identify and treat WNT-medulloblastoma, a highly curable brain tumour in children, without the need for surgery.
Dr. Christopher Mount
Based in the USA at Harvard Medical School, Dr, Mount is developing a new approach to treat gliomas by engineering immune cells to specifically identify and destroy multiple types of cells within the tumour.
Dr. Claire Vinel
Based in the UK at Queen Mary University of London, Dr. Vinel is investigating the relationship between glioblastoma and muscle, with the goal of identifying molecules that promote tumour growth or sarcopenia (muscle loss) that could lead to the development of new drugs to improve patient outcomes.
Dr. Angel Alvarez-Prado
Based in Switzerland at the University of Lausanne , Dr. Alvarez-Prado is developing a novel therapeutic approach to treat glioblastoma by inhibiting ADAR1 in combination with TME-targeted immunotherapies, targeting cancer cells and their supporting microenvironment
These Future Leaders are pushing the boundaries of research into brain tumours. By exploring new ideas and technologies we hope their work will improve the lives of people living with a brain tumour diagnosis. Their dedication to finding new treatments for brain tumours and improving our understanding of these complex diseases is truly inspiring.
At The Brain Tumour Charity, we are committed to funding excellent research that has the potential to make a real difference to people diagnosed with a brain tumour and their families. We believe that investing in the next generation of brain tumour researchers is crucial to achieving our goals of doubling survival and halving the harm caused by brain tumours. By supporting these Future Leaders, we’re helping to shape the future of research into brain tumours and improve outcomes for people diagnosed.
We’ll be following the progress of these researchers closely and sharing updates on their work in the coming months and years. We can’t wait to see the impact they’ll have on the field of brain tumour research.