UC neurosurgeon awarded grant for tumor research
Matthew Garrett, MD, PhD, who specializes in neuro-oncology, recently received a $50,000 grant from the Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation.
The 2021-2022 B*CURED and NREF Young Clinician Investigator Award is only given to junior faculty who are pursuing careers as clinical investigators. Only those neurosurgeons who have completed fellowship within the last two years are eligible to apply.
Matthew Garrett, MD, PhD working in his UC lab. Photo/Julie Forbes/University of Cincinnati.
The award-winning project, titled, “Targeting the malignant epigenome of IDH1 mutant gliomas,” intends to investigate a treatment for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). DIPG is a rare brainstem tumor that occurs primarily in children. There is currently no cure, and it is universally fatal.
"The most commonly accepted hypothesis is that the tumors are initiated when a mutation affects the way the tumor DNA is folded and arranged,” said Garrett, assistant professor of clinical neurosurgery in the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and a UC Health Neurosurgeon at the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute.
Garrett’s study proposes using chaetoin, an untested compound discovered from a drug screen of hundreds of different compounds, to make tumor cells more sensitive to radiation.
Garrett will test the efficacy of this compound by injecting the human tumor cells into mice. His study will both treat the mice with this new compound and will also treat the mice with the compound in combination with other promising therapies like radiation and Panobinostat.
Featured photo at top of UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute by Mark Herboth.
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