Weill Cornell Medical Student Wins Alex’s Lemonade Stand Grant for DIPG Summer Project

Umberto Tosi, a first-year medical student at Weill Cornell, has been awarded a grant that will allow him to conduct a summer research project supporting Dr. Mark Souweidane’s current clinical trial for DIPG and laying the groundwork for the future expansion of that trial. The grant, from the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, is part of the foundation’s Pediatric Oncology Student Training (POST) program.

In Dr. Souweidane’s clinical trial, a therapeutic agent is delivered directly to the site of a DIPG tumor, bypassing the protective blood-brain barrier. When that trial is complete, Dr. Souweidane intends to expand it to more locations, treating more children and testing more agents. In the summer project Umberto will be testing dasatinib (a kinase inhibitor that has been shown to be effective against leukemia) in mice, investigating it as a potential treatment agent against DIPG. By using a radioactive fluoride compound as a tracing agent along with the dasatinib, Umberto will be able to use PET imaging to track the penetration of the dasatinib in the tumor and then into the body.