Special Project Grant Awarded to Carl Koschmann

DIPGs bear a dismal prognosis due to their unique location in the pons and unusual epigenetic mutations (histone mutations) that make them the most challenging cancer to treat. As a result we have no effective therapies leading to invariable fatality of children diagnosed with DIPGs. In order to tackle this major obstacle, multiple investigators at the University of Michigan have launched DIPG research programs from basic science experiments, animal model experiments and clinical trials in DIPG patients. Since the launch of the Chad Carr Pediatric Brain tumor center, we have made many exciting discoveries that challenge our understanding of DIPGs and force us to think out of the box to understand their unique biology and leverage this information to develop effective therapies. One such discovery is related to metabolic addiction of DIPG cancer cells to sugars and nutrients to enable them to uncontrollably grow. Interruption of these addictive pathways as a major strategy to combat cancer has created a lot of excitement in the field. Research programs led by five laboratory heads at the University of Michigan have discovered metabolic addiction in DIPGs ranging from ongoing clinical trials to preclinical work in DIPG cells and animal models.

A major obstacle to this research is the lack of proper equipment, specifically a mass spectroscopy instrument, that enables measurement of metabolic pathways in DIPG cells. This has created a major issue for DIPG researchers and has significantly slowed down the pace of our research.

We propose to purchase and house this instrument jointly in the Koschmann and Venneti laboratory space, where multiple DIPG investigators can easily access the it. Rapidly running DIPG samples will facilitate a faster and more effective pace of DIPG research, spanning clinical trials and preclinical testing with metabolic inhibitors at U of M.