Mathematical Oncology Systems Analysis Imaging Center (MOSAIC) NCI U54 Awarded

The National Cancer Institute has awarded a $10.6 million grant to establish the MOSAIC center between Mayo Clinic and Columbia University. This 5-year award, spearheaded by Dr. Kristin Swanson and Dr. Peter Canoll, will enable us to look more deeply into glioblastoma tissue states, their appearance on imaging, and their potential sex-specific presentations.
Check out Mayo Clinic’s press release here.

Latest Article Published in Nature Methods

We recently published a paper highlighting a major oversight with regard to sex bias in the maps used pervasively in biology and medicine. These maps are used by essentially everyone in biology and medicine. The maps come in the form of big databases that tell us how the basic elements of biology (e.g. genes, proteins, etc) are *thought to be* connected together. Yet, our article clarifies that these maps have failed to incorporate sex into their curation so there is no easy way to know if the maps in these databases are hiding sex-based differences in biology!

To help briefly explain this challenge, my 11 yo daughter and I made a fun(ny) 1 minute video! Check it out here !!
Also you can check out the full article here at Nature Methods.

Sara Ranjbar, PhD awarded Edward C. Kendall Mayo Clinic Alumni Award for Meritorious Research

Congratulations Sara on being the 2021 recipient of the Edward C. Kendall Mayo Clinic Alumni Award for Meritorious Research!!!!!

Presented annually, the Mayo Clinic Alumni Association Edward C. Kendall Alumni Award for Meritorious Research is awarded in recognition of outstanding research conducted by an individual whose primary appointment is in research. Recipients receive an award of $2,000 and a certificate of accomplishment from the Mayo Clinic Alumni Association.

We are so very proud of you!!!

New NCI PSOC U01 Funded

Excited to finally announce our new funding of the NCI U01 grant CA25048 entitled: “Image-based models of tumor-immune dynamics in glioblastoma”

Contact MPI: Kristin Swanson
MPI: Leland Hu, MD (Radiology, Mayo Clinic)
MPI: Peter Canoll, MD, PhD (Director of Neuropathology, Columbia Univ)

This $3.8M award will support our ability to resolve the dynamics of the human immune system within the glioblastoma microenvironment during the course of a patients’ care.

Abstract: Our inability to explain why some patients do not respond to immunotherapy, combined with our inability to
predict the responders, poses a serious challenge to advancing cancer care and research. Currently, biopsies
serve as the most informative way to assess the immunological activity within a cancerous area, but we are
spatially and temporally limited in the number of biopsies we can obtain from patients, especially in cases of
brain cancer. We propose here a novel strategy merging artificial intelligence and mechanistic modeling to
reveal the spatial and temporal tumor-immune landscape within patients by connecting a unique resource of
image-localized biopsies and clinical imaging for cohorts treated with standard and immunotherapies.

Lab Presents Posters at the Annual Society for Neuro-Oncology Meeting

The Annual Society for Neuro-Oncology Meeting was held virtually this year and our lab presented two posters:

Mathematical Oncology Blogpost – Thriving and Evolving During the Pandemic, by Andrea Hawkins-Daarud

Thanks to Covid-19, many of us have found ourselves working from home. Indeed as a lab, we have had to adjust to this new setup. Andrea Hawkins-Daarud (one of our Associate Directors) has recently published a mathematical oncology blogpost, outlining the ways in which we’ve shifted our work style in response to the pandemic. Check out the link below!

Thriving and Evolving During the Pandemic

Lab to Present 16 Abstracts at the Annual Society for NeuroOncology Meeting

Our lab members and collaborators are presenting 14 abstracts at the Annual Society for NeuroOncology Meeting (click on title for abstract):