I have a broad background in oncology research with specific training and expertise in pediatric brain tumors.  My research is focused on the development of new brain tumor therapies with a special interest in therapy resistance mechanisms. One goal of my lab is to determine how to utilize autophagy, a cellular recycling program, to improve therapy for patients with central nervous system (CNS) tumors.  My lab laid the groundwork for targeting autophagy in CNS tumors, identifying the connection between BRAF pathway alterations and autophagy addiction in brain tumors. My work also demonstrated the effectiveness of autophagy inhibition when tumors become resistant to BRAF/MEK inhibitors. A first in pediatrics multi-institutional trial of autophagy inhibition based on my work opened in 2019 in collaboration with the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium and Novartis. Additional work in my lab is focused on the development of novel, rapidly translatable treatments for pediatric CNS tumors. We recently demonstrated the potential to target atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors (ATRT) with proteosome inhibition. Our work has continued to identify other potential, biologically driven therapies for ATRT and other tumors using genome and pharmacologic screening to identify future treatment regimens. My research program leverages my experience in pediatric brain tumors, pre-clinical treatment development, mechanisms of therapy in pediatric brain tumors and success in translating laboratory findings into active clinical trials to develop the knowledge needed to improve the life and survival of our patients.