MISSION STATEMENT

Understanding and Targeting Invasion in Pediatric Brain Tumors

Malignant pediatric brain tumors such as medulloblastoma continue to cause significant morbidity and mortality despite advances in surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Survivors often face lifelong side effects from aggressive treatments, and a subset of patients still succumb to metastatic disease, highlighting an urgent need for more precise and less toxic therapeutic strategies.  

Our research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that enable tumor cells to invade surrounding brain tissue and interact with the neural tumor microenvironment (nTME). Tumor invasion and dissemination are key biological processes that drive disease progression and treatment resistance, yet the cellular programs and signaling networks that underlie these behaviors in medulloblastoma remain poorly understood.  

To address this gap, we investigate how medulloblastoma cells communicate with their surrounding tissue through mechanisms such as extracellular vesicle release and dynamic cytoskeletal remodeling, and how these interactions influence both tumor cell motility and the behavior of host cells. Our work integrates advanced 3D cell and tissue models, high-resolution imaging, and computational analysis—including machine learning—to quantify phenotypic features that define invasive states and to identify key regulators of these processes.

In parallel, we are developing and functionally validating novel small molecule strategies that disrupt these tumor-promoting pathways, with the long-term goal of translating mechanistic insights into effective anti-invasion therapies for children with medulloblastoma and related brain tumors. 

Our lab is part of the Pediatric Oncology Division of the University Children's Hospital Zürich, affiliated with the Children's Research Center, the  Comprehensive Cancer Center Zürich, and the University of Zürich.

We receive or have received financial support from the SNF, the Swiss Cancer League, Stiftung Kinderkrebsforschung Schweiz, Innosuisse, Sassella Stiftung,  and Forschungsstiftung UZH. We are truly grateful for this generous financial support.

Diversity statement:

As a lab affiliated with the University of Zurich (UZH), we embrace diversity as a core value and tolerate no discrimination. We are committed to treating each other with esteem, respect, and open-mindedness regardless of age, disability, gender, gender identity, origin, religion, sexual orientation, social or occupational position, or language. In our encounters with each other, we welcome the opportunity to broaden our horizons, to learn from one another, and to thrive through new challenges.