The 12th Annual Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers Research Symposium on April 7 offered faculty and trainees the opportunity to present their latest research and reunited the editors of the leading textbook on pediatric oncology.
The 7th edition of “Principles and Practice of Pediatric Oncology” is co-edited by Dr. David Poplack, professor of pediatrics at Baylor and director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, and Dr. Philip Pizzo, former dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine and founding director of the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute.
Pizzo, whose career focus has been on the treatment of childhood cancer and infectious complications in children whose immune systems are compromised by diseases such as cancer and AIDS, was the keynote speaker at the symposium’s morning session. He offered a reflection on his career and participated in a question-and-answer session moderated by Poplack.
Dr. Peggy Goodell, professor of pediatrics at Baylor and part of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, delivered the afternoon keynote. The symposium also included a dozen oral research presentations and many more poster presentations.
Oral Presentation Winners:
1st place: Ifigeneia Tzannou, instructor, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy
Administration of most closely HLA-matched multivirus-specific T cells for the treatment of EBV, CMV, AdV, HHV-6 and BKV post allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant
2nd place: Jacob Junco, postdoctoral associate in pediatric oncology
Leukemogenesis in down syndrome acute lymphoblastic leukemia
3rd place: Frank Lin, assistant professor of pediatrics – oncology
Diagnostically and therapeutically relevant alterations in rare pediatric CNS tumors revealed by integrated sequencing
Poster Presentation Winners:
1st place: Paibel Aguayo-Hiraldo, clinical postdoctoral fellow in pediatric hematology/oncology
Adoptive T cell therapy for the prevention and treatment of parainfluenza virus 3 infections post allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant
2nd place: Vijetha Kumar, research assistant in pathology
Clinical validation of a next-generation target RNA sequencing assay for detection of fusion genes in pediatric and solid tumors
3rd place: Arpad Szoor, postdoctoral associate in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy
T cell activating mesenchymal stem cells as a biotherapeutic for HCC