Vitanza Lab
The goal of the Vitanza Lab is to find new treatments that are both safe and curative for high-grade, aggressive pediatric brain and spinal cord tumors, such as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), diffuse midline glioma H3 K27M-altered (DMG), and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT). Our central efforts include:
- Generating new central nervous system (CNS) tumor laboratory models, including treatment-naïve DIPG/DMG models derived from patient biopsies and autopsy-derived models made possible through generous donations from patients and families across the country.
- Identifying biologic and epigenetic vulnerabilities in DIPG/DMG so that we can advance the best molecularly-targeted drugs to kill tumor cells.
- Designing and deploying chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, an immunotherapy that can be delivered directly into the brain for highly-specific targeted tumor killing – such as on our BrainChild clinical trials.
Featured Research
Nicholas A Vitanza, MD
My goal is to find safer and more effective therapies for children with central nervous system (CNS) tumors (meaning, tumors of the brain and spine). As a pediatric neuro-oncologist, the director of the Vitanza Lab at the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research, and our CNS CAR T cell lead, I am fortunate to work at the intersection where laboratory science translates to new clinical trials. Our work has helped advance epigenetically targeted drugs and targeted immunotherapies - such as CAR T cells - to the clinic for patients with fatal tumors such as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), diffuse midline glioma (DMG), and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT). Overseeing our multiple open CNS CAR T cell trials has allowed me to connect with in need families from all over the world and our pledge is to provide expert, compassionate care to each child we meet.
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Matt Biery
Scientist
Matt earned a B.S. in biology at the University of Oregon and an M.S. in molecular biology at San Diego State University. He is excited to work on generating treatment naïve models for DIPG and other pediatric brain tumors and identifying promising targets and therapies.
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Michael Meechan
Scientist
Michael earned a B.S. in chemistry and minor in music at the University of Washington. He is passionate about preclinical translational research and leads the lab's in vivo studies. Michael investigates novel therapies in patient-derived tumor models of life-threatening pediatric central nervous system tumors with the hope of best informing future clinical trials.
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Edward Song, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Edward earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh and a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, where his PhD study focused on CAR T cell therapy for glioblastoma under the mentorship of Drs. Michael Milone, Daniel Powell, and Carl June. Edward is passionate about doing translational research to develop novel cellular immunotherapies for CNS tumors from bench to bedside.
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Andrea Timpanaro, PhD, MS
Postdoctoral Researcher
Andrea earned a B.S. and a M.S. in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Insubria. During his PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bern, he performed surfaceome profiling of rhabdomyosarcoma and investigated B7H3/FGFR4 CAR T cells in vitro and in vivo models. Andrea is excited to work on translational research and to develop novel CAR T cell-based therapies for brain tumors.
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Linh Vo
Undergraduate Student
Linh is a current student at Stanford University from Seattle working towards a degree in biomechanical engineering. She is interested in becoming a neuro-oncologist in the future and is passionate about further developing therapies and drugs for brain tumors.
Alexandra Huffman
Undergraduate Student
Scott Johnson
Undergraduate Student
Carrie Myers
Scientist
Carrie earned a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at Purdue University. She has worked in cancer research since 2013 and specializes in vivo model development, drug efficacy testing, and CAR T cell experimentation. She joined Nick’s team at Fred Hutch in 2017 and was a critically important founding member of the Vitanza Lab at Seattle Children’s.
Sophie Tahiri
Graduate Student (PhD Candidate)
Sophie earned a BA with honors in neurobiology at New College of Florida and a master's with distinction in molecular medicine and cancer research at Brunel University London. In the Vitanza Lab, she studied the epigenetic regulation of pediatric CNS tumors and completed an additional master’s degree.
Andrea Timpanaro, PhD, MS
Postdoctoral Researcher
Andrea earned a B.S. and a M.S. in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Insubria. During his PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bern, he performed surfaceome profiling of rhabdomyosarcoma and investigated B7-H3/FGFR4 CAR T cells in vitro and in vivo models. In the Vitanza Lab, he led translational research projects developing novel CAR T cell-based therapies for CNS tumors. His work uncovered promising combinatorial treatment strategies, led to multiple grants, and resulted in multiple research publications.
Linh Vo
Undergraduate Student