Raven

Raven
Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical Vocational School
Taunton, MA

Mentor:
Pratiti Bandopadhayay
Cancer Program 

Diffuse Intrinsic Glioma (DIPG) is a devastating pediatric brain tumor. Raven interrogated whole-genome sequence profiles of 34 DIPGs to identify five novel potential driver mutations in DIPG. These results provide further insights into the biology of these tumors. Children with DIPGs are frequently treated with alkylator chemotherapy; however, the effect on cancer cells is not well determined. Raven treated cells with alkylators and measured induction of methylation levels (as a pharmacodynamic marker of the drug) to determine the optimal doses of drugs to use in further experiments that will characterize the response of DIPG cells to treatment with alkylators. These experiments should guide the development of new strategies to increase the efficacy of current treatments for children diagnosed with DIPG.

Raven felt that spending her summer at the Broad, working beside scientists, gaining real life experience, having a mentor that she could approach with questions, and being able to meet other students interested in the science field would be an amazing opportunity. “My favorite part about working at the Broad was how open and friendly everyone was. You can always find someone to talk to about your research and everyone loves helping and learning as much as I do. It’s a great environment filled with fantastic people,” said Raven.