Every year, more than 10,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in the United States, and 40% of them are solid tumors. The most common tumors include neuroblastoma, Wilms' tumor, rhabdomyosarcoma, osteosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, retinoblastoma, and hepatoblastoma, and the treatment can include surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. Frequently, the treatment results in significant toxicity that leads to long-lasting morbidity and sometimes mortality. The ability to accurately treat the tumor has become possible with advances in cancer biology, genomics, imaging techniques, tumor immunology, and drug delivery. The pediatric oncology lab aims to utilize the latest technology to precisely target the tumor cells and improve the outcome of children diagnosed with a solid tumor.
Research Director
Dr. Bill Chiu
Dr. Bill Chiu has been performing biomedical research since 1993, utilizing animal models to study human diseases. Previously, he has developed an inflammation-based mouse model for abdominal aortic aneurysm and a rat model simulating portal vein obstruction to study coagulation factor alteration. Dr. Chiu's current focus is on pediatric solid tumors, especially neuroblastoma. He has developed various preclinical animal models for neuroblastoma, including orthotopic mouse models, patient derived xenograft models, and surgical resection models. These models are platforms for testing novel treatment strategies as well as tools to understand the mechanisms of tumor formation. Dr. Chiu’s laboratory is supported by the NIH, American College of Surgeons, and industry partners.
Mission Statement
To understand the mechanisms of pediatric solid tumors, precisely target the specific causes, and devise unique medical or surgical treatments for every child
Goals
- Develop preclinical models that can faithfully recapitulate the tumor mechanism and microenvironment
- Design, create, and develop different controlled release platforms that can be loaded with novel therapeutics and applied in solid tumors
- Utilize molecular, genetic, immunological, bioengineering, and bioinformatics approaches to study mechanisms of tumor formation, progression, and metastasis
- Develop minimally invasive protocol capable of precisely targeting solid tumor and improving surgical resection margins
Lab Members
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Jane Tiche
Jane Tiche is currently the Laboratory Manager for the Pediatric Oncology Laboratory. In this capacity since 2021, Jane oversees projects in the Pediatric Oncology Laboratory primarily involving orthotopic preclinical modeling, advanced imaging techniques, surgical intervention, immunohistochemistry, and testing of localized therapeutic delivery systems. Jane has worked in laboratory settings since graduating with her degree in Animal Science and Management from University of California, Davis. Her scientific background includes large and small animal medicine, research observation and data collection, facility inspections, and large facility operations. She has held a variety of research positions most recently with Jackson Laboratory in Sacramento prior to her current position with Stanford Medicine.
In addition to her scientific work, she is taking coursework in biotechnology and enjoys studying languages. Jane currently resides in San Francisco and enjoys going to the theatre.
Email: jtiche@stanford.edu
Rachel Greathouse
Rachel Greathouse has been in the Pediatric Oncology Laboratory since February 2020. She was first introduced to biomedical research in 2013 as a UC Davis undergraduate where she investigated a protein therapy for Angelman Syndrome. Prior to working at Stanford, Rachel had been a collaborative researcher at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical School between the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology and Department of Medicine and Epidemiology. Her scientific background includes small and large animal medicine, veterinary endocrinology, stem cell biology, diabetes pathophysiology, and novel treatment development for genetic disorders.
Abstracts and Presentations
Implantable chemotherapy-loaded silk protein materials for neuroblastoma treatment
"These results show that intratumoral chemotherapy delivery may be a treatment strategy for pediatric neuroblastoma, potentially translatable to other focal tumors types. Furthermore, this treatment modality allows for a clinically relevant mouse model of tumor transformation that may be used for studying the phenotypical tumor recurrence and developing more effective treatment strategies for recurrent tumors."