June 2025
- Kevin Tu, now a medical student at the University of Maryland, wins a 2025 AΩA Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship to enable a summer project titled “Characterizing the tumor microenvironment in glioblastoma and the role of STING in modulating its immune response”
- Spencer Maingi presents a Trainee Flash Talk titled “Spatial and single-cell transcriptomic analysis of malignant pediatric brain tumors following oncolytic virotherapy” at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center Annual Retreat and wins 2nd place.
- Sophie Wu graduates from the Reitman Lab and will enter the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at University of North Carolina to earn her MD/PhD. Congratulations Sophie!
- Jazlyn Seidel, a medical student at Duke, completes her 3rd Year of Research in the Reitman lab. Her first-authored manuscript titled “Management Outcomes for Biopsy-Proven Radiation Necrosis in Patients with Brain Metastases in the Era of Immune-Checkpoint Blockade.” was accepted into Journal of Neuro-Oncology. She presented her work as an oral presentation at the Brain Tumor Epidemiology Consortium meeting at Duke on The Epidemiology of Brain Metastases for Adult and Pediatric Brain Tumors. Congratulations Jazlyn!
May 2025
- Abby Groth presents a poster titled “Characterizing a Novel Mouse Model for Diffuse Midline Gliomas Harboring Activating, Truncating Mutations in the Oncogenic Phosphatase PPM1D” at the 2025 SNO Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Conference in San Diego, CA
- Spencer Maingi presents “Probing the impact of irradiation and ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (Atm) disruption on survival and Sting expression in the diffuse midline glioma tumor microenvironment” as a poster and flash talk at the 2025 SNO Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Conference in San Diego, CA
April 2025
- The lab publishes work on new brain tumor preclinical models and treatment strategies in a paper titled “Disruption of Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated kinase enhances radiation therapy efficacy in spatially-directed diffuse midline glioma models” in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
- Eugene Vaios, MD, MBA and colleagues publish “Symptomatic Necrosis With Dual Immune-Checkpoint Inhibition and Radiosurgery for Brain Metastases” in JAMA Network Open. This study of brain tumor patients who were treated with radiation and immunotherapy helps guide the “bedside-to-bench” translational work in the Reitman lab.
March 2025
- In a collaboration with Yi Fan and others at the University of Pennsylvania, we report that radiation delivered at ultra high “FLASH” dose rates stimulates the immune system and improves the efficacy of immunotherapy for childhood brain tumors in preclinical studies. The study is titled “FLASH radiation reprograms lipid metabolism and macrophage immunity and sensitizes medulloblastoma to CAR-T cell therapy” in Nature Cancer.
February 2025
- Sophie Wu and other lab members report their work on combining CRISPR/Cas9 with the RCAS/tv-a retrovirus system to generate new mouse models in a paper in Neoplasia.
- Abby Groth wins a Brain Tumor Omics Program (BTOP) Travel Award to support his presentation at the 2025 SNO Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Conference in San Diego, CA.
- Spencer Maingi wins a Brain Tumor Omics Program (BTOP) Travel Award to support his presentation at the 2025 SNO Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Conference in San Diego, CA.
January 2025
- Sophie Wu wins a Brain Tumor Omics Program (BTOP) Travel Award to support her presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in Chicago.
December 2024
- Josh Tolliver presented a lightning talk and poster titled “Combining epigenetic and DNA-damaging therapies to enhance the efficacy of radiation therapy for diffuse midline glioma” at the Duke Cancer Institute Annual Retreat.
- Tal Falick Michaeli, MD, PhD, Bio-Med MBA, a radiation oncologist and scientist from Hadassah Medical Center, joins the lab with the support of a prestigious Rothschild Fellowship.
November 2024
- Vennesa Valentine presented a poster titled “Developing a novel mouse model of PPM1D-mutant diffuse midline glioma” at the Society for Neuro Oncology (SNO) Annual Meeting in Houston, TX.
September 2024
- Josh Tolliver presented a poster titled “Spatially-resolved transcriptomic analysis of the effects of irradiation and Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (Atm) loss on the tumor immune microenvironment in a primary mouse model of diffuse midline glioma” at the Radiation Research Society (RRS) Annual Meeting in Tucson, AZ.
- Zach Reitman presented at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke Seminar Series on “Radiosensitizing Diffuse Midline Glioma”
- Jim Leng, MD and colleagues publish “Impact of TP53 mutations on brain metastasis control in non-small cell lung cancer patients undergoing stereotactic radiosurgery” in the Journal of Radiosurgery and SBRT. The work leverages patient outcomes data to uncover connections between tumor genotype and clinical response that we study in the Reitman Lab.
August 2024
- Nerissa Williams has been promoted to Lab Research Analyst II. Congratulations Nerissa!
- Sheeba Jacob, PhD has been promoted to Research Associate, Senior. Congratulations Sheeba!
- In collaboration with colleagues around the world, we review the landscape of new treatment approaches that target DNA regulation in brain tumors in “DNA damage response in brain tumors: A Society for Neuro-Oncology consensus review on mechanisms and translational efforts in neuro-oncology” in the journal Neuro Oncology.
July 2024
- The lab starts work on a Duke Cancer Institute 2024 Spring Pilot Award titled “Extremophile-derived radioprotectors to potentiate cell therapy” which may help to combine immunotherapy with radiation therapy to improve outcomes for patients with solid tumors. The work is supported by developmental funds of the Duke Cancer Institute as part of the NIH P30CA014236 Cancer Center Support Grant.
- Vennesa Valentine won a Duke School of Medicine Precision Genomics Collaboratory-OBGE Graduate Student Pilot Research Grant to support her work. Congratulations Vennesa!
June 2024
- Sheeba Jacob, PhD is awarded a 2-year Brain Tumor Omics Program (BTOP) Fellowship. Congratulations Dr. Jacob!
- Spencer Maingi wins an honorable mention for a Trainee Flash Talk at the 2024 Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke 2024 Research Retreat, titled “Spatially-resolved transcriptomic analysis of the tumor microenvironment in a primary mouse model of diffuse midline glioma.”
- Julie Sharpe, rising Senior at the University of Kentucky, joins the lab as a Summer 2024 AMGEN Scholar. She is working on using PCR, CRISPR gene editing, and next generation sequencing techniques to study a new brain tumor mouse model.
- Victoria Garcia Rodriguez, rising MS2 at the San Juan Bautista School of Medicine, Puerto Rico, joins the lab as a Summer 2024 Office of Physician Scientist Development (OPSD) PReparing Medical Scholars In BioMEdical Research (PRIME) Scholar. She is working on protecting T cells from radiation to enhance immunotherapy treatments.
May 2024
- Abby Groth graduates from Duke with Distinction in Biology and joins the lab as a Research Technician.
- Sophie Wu graduates from Duke with Distinction in Bioengineering and will join the lab full time in August. She won a Howard G. Clark Award for excellent research projects for her work on using CRISPR/Cas9 to induce brain tumors in mice.
April 2024
- Sophie Wu is returns to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting with the second year of support of her AACR Undergraduate Scholar Award. This year, she presented a poster entitled “Generating primary mouse models of diffuse midline glioma through a combination of the RCAS/tv-a retrovirus system and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing” at the meeting in San Diego.
February 2024
- The lab starts work on a 4-year Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation A Award project titled “Modulation of STING to enhance the efficacy of treatments for diffuse midline glioma”. The work seeks to improve treatments by targeting the immune system for patients with diffuse midline gliomas such as DIPG.
November 2023
- The lab analyzes cancer genomic sequencing data to identify useful new enzymes, which may help to synthesize new drugs and other chemicals in the future. The work is entitled “Mining cancer genomes for change-of-metabolic-function mutations” in the Nature journal Communications Biology.
October 2023
- Kevin Tu and others in the lab analyze genetic screening data to uncover methods to target glioblastoma, one of the most deadly and aggressive types of brain tumors. The work is entitled “Pooled genetic screens to identify vulnerabilities in TERT-promoter-mutant glioblastoma” in Oncogene.
- Kevin Tu, an AMGEN scholar in the Reitman lab, begins a new chapter as a Churchill Scholar at the University of Cambridge, UK.
August 2023
- Harrison Liu delivered an oral presentation at the International Congress of Radiation Research titled “Spatially-resolved transcriptomic analyses of radiosensitization strategies in a primary mouse model of diffuse midline glioma” in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
- After two years in the lab, Loren Weidenhammer joins the Duke Pathology Department as a graduate student to pursue a PhD.
April 2023
- Sophie Wu is awarded an American Association for Cancer Research Undergraduate Scholar Award. She presented a poster entitled “Combining the RCAS/TVA retrovirus system and a conditional oncohistone H3.3K27M allele to investigate radiosensitization strategies in primary mouse models of diffuse midline glioma” at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
March 2023
- Joshua Regal, MD, PhD, and others in the lab publish the first multi-omic analysis of ganglioglioma, an important brain tumor composed of cells that resemble neurons and glia. The work is entitled “Ganglioglioma deep transcriptomics reveals primitive neuroectoderm neural precursor-like population” in Acta Neuropathologica Communications.
- Loren Weidenhammer and others in the lab disseminate our unique protocols for brainstem glioma research in the Cell journal STAR Protocols.
November 2022
- Sophie Wu is awarded a Pratt Scholars award to continue her research on histone mutations and CRISPR/Cas9 techniques in mouse models of pediatric brain tumors
- Joshua Regal, MD, PhD, presents results on deep transcriptomic analysis of gangliogliomas and other glioneuronal brain tumors at Pediatric Oncology
October 2022
- Loren Weidenhammer presents results on roles of p53 tumor suppressor in our mouse models of pediatric brain tumors at the annual Radiation Research Society meeting in Hawaii
September 2022
- Connor Stewart and colleagues publish our work on a mouse model of brainstem glioma in Cancers
August 2022
- Kevin Tu completes a prestigious AMGEN undergraduate summer scholarship in the Reitman Lab
- Zach Reitman, MD, PhD, is awarded a Mentored Clinician Scientist Career Development Award K08CA256045 from the National Cancer Institute
July 2022
- Zach Reitman, MD, PhD, is awarded a third year of support from the Emily Beazley’s Kures for Kids Fund to support the lab’s research aimed at enhancing the efficacy of radiation therapy for childhood cancers
- Zach Reitman, MD, PhD, is awarded a New Investigator Award from ChadTough Defeat DIPG to study mechanisms of treatment resistance in childhood brain tumors
February 2022
- Maria Guerra Garcia and colleagues publish an important review on targeting Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated kinase (ATM) for future cancer treatments in Seminars in Radiation Oncology