Research Abstract

Sarcomas comprise a large and diverse group of tumors that are rare. Among these, chordoma represent an indolent tumor of the spine or the base of the skull. Evidence point to a notochordal origin. Presumably notochordal remnants failing to disappear during development give rise to this tumor later in life. We are working towards a better understanding of driver pathways in chordoma including T brachyury, a key transcription factor. Among our projects is a drug screening effort in collaboration with the Koch Institute and Boston University centered on T brachyury.

We are also interested in inner tumor heterogeneity as applied to sarcomas in general with an emphasis on osteosarcoma and chondrosarcoma. We apply single cell RNAseq using several technological platforms including emulsion based methods to investigate heterogeneity at the single cell level.