Focused Ultrasound for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma Workshop

Mark Borden

Evan Cantor, JD, MD

Dr. Hong Chen is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurosurgery at Washington University in St. Louis. She received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Washington in 2011. She joined Columbia University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering as a postdoctoral research scientist from 2012 to 2015. Since joining Washington University in St. Louis in 2015, her research has been focusing on harnessing the power of ultrasound for non-invasive diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases and understanding brain functions.

Anirban Das, MD, is a formally-trained paediatric neuro-oncologist and cancer geneticist, working as a staff physician at SickKids, an Associate Member of the Brain Tumor Research Center, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. His over-arching research focus is to unearth the germline underpinnings of deadly brain tumors in children and young adults and translate these discoveries to improve diagnostics and clinical care for these young patients globally. His current work is specifically focussed on comprehensively deciphering the immuno-biology of CNS cancers that arise from DNA replication-repair deficiency. He co-leads the International RRD Consortium (https://replicationrepair.ca) and in addition to his research, routinely consults on patients globally including from low and low-middle income countries, to enable evidence-based care for these patients and their families. He is involved with multiple international consortia, cancer predisposition committees and immuno-oncology working groups to develop clinical diagnostics, workflows and precision-oncology trials focussing on novel correlative biomarker analyses for these patients and their cancers.

Dr. Garvin is a pediatric neuro-oncologist with interest and experience in FUS for DIPG/DMG as well as new drug development.

David Hersh is a pediatric neurosurgeon at Connecticut Children’s. He completed medical school at New York University, his neurosurgery residency at the University of Maryland, and his pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. During his training, he developed a passion for focused ultrasound, particularly as a technology that can facilitate drug delivery to the brain, and he looks forward to expanding its uses to his pediatric patients.

Elisa E. Konofagou is the Robert and Margaret Hariri Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor Radiology as well as Director of the Ultrasound and Elasticity Imaging Laboratory at Columbia University in New York City. Elisa is Member of the National Academy of Medicine (US) and has co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed research articles. She is the recipient the NSF CAREER award, the NIH Nagy award, the IEEE-EMBS Technological Achievement Award, the SPIE Wellness Award and the IEEE-IUS Carl Helmholtz award, fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and the Wallace H. Coulter foundation.

Dr. Roger J. Packer is the Gilbert Distinguished Professor of Neurofibromatosis, and Director and Chief of both the Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Institute and the Brain Tumor Institute of Children’s National Hospital (CNH), Washington, DC. Throughout his career, Dr. Packer has been heavily involved in clinical and applied basic science research focusing on the treatment of children with brain tumors and those with NF1; developing and leading clinical/translational trials, including those using low-intensity focused ultrasound, molecular therapy and cellular therapy. Presently, Dr. Packer is Chair of the PBTC Low-Grade Glioma Committee; Co-Investigator (CNH) of the Neurofibromatosis Clinical Trials Consortium; Chair of the Medulloblastoma Committee of the Children’s Oncology Group; and Chair of the Medulloblastoma Initiative. He has published over 450 original articles and 380 reviews and chapters.

Lauren Powlovich, MD, MBA, joined the Foundation in March 2019 and serves as Associate Chief Medical Officer. She brings together key stakeholders and synthesizes and executes cohesive plans to advance focused ultrasound for several applications including neurodegenerative disorders, glioblastoma, DIPG/DMG, and sonodynamic therapy. She fosters education by creating and maintaining the Foundation’s comprehensive overview documents that outline the state of the field for a variety of relevant indications. Prior to joining the Foundation, Lauren trained as an anesthesiologist, and she has always been passionate about putting patients first. She continues to have that mindset and works hard to ensure that focused ultrasound reaches patients safely and efficiently.

Currently the Chief Scientific Officer for Targepeutics with a sustained career in cancer biology and drug discovery/development, overseeing translational and regulatory activities for our lead biologic, GB13, including successful orphan drug and rare pediatric disease designations for pediatric high-grade gliomas. Prior to joining Targepeutics, I was Senior Scientist at Apogee Biotechnology Company, completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University, in the lab of Dr Karen Knudsen, and received by PhD from the University of Virginia.

Children’s National Hospital
hsyed@childrensnational.org

Hasan R. Syed, MD is a pediatric neurosurgeon at Children’s National Hospital. He is an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine and serves as Director of Postgraduate Medical Education and Co-Director of the Focused Ultrasound Program. Dr. Syed completed his neurosurgical training at Georgetown University, followed by a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. His clinical expertise includes brain and spinal tumors, craniosynostosis, hydrocephalus, Moyamoya disease, and congenital spinal disorders. Passionate about medical education and global health, he co-founded Global Brainsurgery Initiative and leads surgical mission trips in several developing countries.

Candice Van Skike has a PhD in neuroscience and is a research scientist at Cook Children’s. She is working with Dr. Sibo Zhao, medical director of neuro-oncology, on the focused ultrasound endowed chair program to bring this transformative technology to Fort Worth, Texas. Cook Children’s is planning to open their first clinical trial for focused ultrasound in neuro-oncology this year.

Hong-Jian Wei is a cancer biologist specializing in tumor biology, the cancer microenvironment, and novel therapeutic development. His research focuses on CNS malignancies, particularly DIPG/DMG and GBM. A key challenge in treating these tumors is the heterogeneous blood-brain barrier (BBB), which limits systemic therapy efficacy. Wei investigates focused ultrasound (FUS), a non-invasive method to transiently open the BBB, to enhance drug delivery and immune modulation. His work explores combining FUS with radiotherapy to improve treatment outcomes for DIPG/DMG and GBM patients..

He received his M.D. from the Aristotelis University of Thessaloniki in Greece. Stergios trained at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children’s Hospital, and is board certified for pediatrics, and pediatric hematology/oncology in the US.
He has held several leadership positions at renowned US and international institutions including Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and the Royal Marsden Hospital in the UK. In his positions in the UK, and more recently at Columbia, Stergios has led various clinical trials evaluating new agents and the development of a Novel Drug Delivery program for children with brain tumors focusing on Convection Enhanced Delivery and Focused Ultrasound.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. White was a private consultant working in operations and business development support in the healthcare and medical start-up space. Her clients have included everything from a 4,000+ employee, publicly traded, health care company to a brand new start-up with two employees. Her background includes training in general surgery, leadership positions in several highly technical start-up companies with federal clients, non-profit executive management and over 25 years of grant writing experience. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biology & Anthropology at Smith College and holds certification for Community Conflict Resolution from Loyola Law School. She is also a University of Virginia School of Medicine graduate.