The Children’s Tumor Foundation Research Advisory Board (RAB) provides expert guidance to CTF’s research strategy and funding decisions. Comprised of leading scientists across key areas of NF research—including basic science, translational research, and drug development—the RAB helps identify the most impactful opportunities to advance treatments and drive progress toward cures for all forms of NF.
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University of Texas Southwestern
Dr. Le is a Physician-Scientist with a scientific and clinical focus in neurofibromatosis. He received his Ph.D. degree in Immunology and Molecular Genetics, and a medical degree (M.D.) from the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed an Internship in Internal Medicine at UCLA/St. Mary Medical Center, residency training in Dermatology and a postdoctoral fellowship in Cancer Biology from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Le is currently a professor of dermatology at UT Southwestern and he sees patients at its Comprehensive Neurofibromatosis Clinic.
As a principal investigator in cancer biology, Dr. Le’s laboratory investigates how initiating genetic and tumor microenvironmental events interplay to regulate NF1-associated tumorigenesis. A major contribution of Dr. Le’s laboratory is the generation and exploitation of novel neurofibromatosis models to decipher mechanisms that initiate Schwann cell tumor development and drive their malignant transformation. His laboratory has identified the cells of origin for different types of neurofibroma, defined developmental window-of-opportunity within Schwann cell lineage for neurofibroma development and delineated vital cancer pathways for its malignant transformation. These studies have addressed fundamental, unanswered questions in the neurofibromatosis field and could lead directly to potentially effective therapies for NF1 patients.
Aerang Kim, MD, PhD is the Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Clinical Research in the Division of Oncology and solid tumors attending at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC.
Her research focuses on the development of novel therapeutics for pediatric solid tumors, sarcomas, and NF1 associated tumors, in particular malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST).
She serves as the MPNST disease committee chair for the Department of Defense Clinical Trials Consortium, and leads multiple early phase trials of novel combination therapeutics for MPNST.
Senior Member and Chair, Department of Molecular Oncology, The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center.
Dr. Kissil received his PhD degree from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he started his independent research group in 2004 at the Wistar Institute. In 2012, Dr. Kissil was recruited to The Scripps Research Institute and in 2021, was recruited to the Moffitt Cancer Center as Chair of the Department of Molecular Oncology and Leader of the Cancer Biology and Evolution Program. Dr. Kissil has received several awards throughout his career including a “Human Frontier Science Program” Post-Doctoral Fellowship, The Children’s Tumor Foundation “Young Investigator Award,” an R.L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award, American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award, The Scripps “Society of Research Fellows” Outstanding Mentor Award for 2014, and is a Moffitt Distinguished Scholar. Dr. Kissil served on several national and international review panels. Dr. Kissil’s research interests are on understanding the mechanisms of how mitogenic and developmental signaling pathways communicate in tumor cells and on the identification of therapeutic targets. For over 20 years, his group has focused intensively on understanding the molecular basis of NF2-SWN. Work from his group identified signaling pathways that are disrupted in the context of NF2-SWN mutations and validated several therapeutic targets, leading to initiation of clinical trials for NF2-SWN. Currently, his group is working on developing small-molecule and immunotherapeutic strategies as potential treatments for NF2-SWN associated tumors.
Andrea “Andi” McClatchey is the Poitras Family Professor of Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and was named the 2011 Scott and Patricia Eston MGH ECOR Research Scholar in 2011. Dr. McClatchey received her PhD in Genetics from Harvard Medical School and completed postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Tyler Jacks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the faculty at MGH and Harvard Medical School. In addition to running a research program, Dr. McClatchey is co-leader of the Landry Cancer Biology Consortium for graduate students at Harvard Medical School and devotes considerable time to the training and mentoring of graduate students. Dr. McClatchey’s research is dedicated to understanding the molecular basis of the familial tumor syndrome neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) and using that insight to develop and test new treatments for NF2. Her work has uncovered key aspects of how the NF2 protein Merlin functions and revealed fundamental rules by which all cells organize their outer membrane so as to appropriately interface with their environment. She actively engages in translating these fundamental scientific discoveries toward new therapeutic strategies for NF2 patients.
His research contributed successfully towards the understanding of the molecular aetiology of several types of NF1-associated tumours including GIST, glomus tumours of the digits, atypical neurofibromas and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumours. His research group was also involved in the molecular characterization of the NF1 microdeletion region and successfully identified the SUZ12 gene as the gene responsible for the increased risk of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumours in individuals with an NF1 microdeletion. His team was involved in a clinical trial to improve cognitive aspects in children with NF1 using Simvastatin treatment (NF1-SIMCODA trial of Erasmus University Rotterdam) and in behavioural research in NF1 children including autism spectrum disorder.
Dr. Legius is a member of the European Reference Network (ERN) GENTURIS, and participates in the thematic group on neurofibromatosis. He is a member of the steering committee that revised the diagnostic criteria for NF1 and established criteria for Legius syndrome. Dr Legius is a member of EU-PEARL, an innovative medicines initiative from the EU (IMI2) focusing on the organization of innovative clinical platform trials for NF1, NF2 and schwannomatosis.
Helen Morrison studied in the United Kingdom and received her PhD degree in Germany. After research stays in the USA and Germany, she moved to Jena to pursue her scientific career as a group leader at the Leibniz Research on Aging (FLI) where she was tenured in 2015 and was appointed Professor Neurobiology of Aging at Faculty of Biological Sciences, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena in 2020. Dr. Morrison is on national and international review panels, is an elected German Research Foundation study section member, and has initiated mentoring measures targeting young scientists and clinicians. She has also been a spokesperson for the Leibniz-funded postdoc network ‘RegenerAging’ since 2015 and a spokesperson for the interdisciplinary Leibniz Research Alliance ‘Healthy Aging’ since 2017. Dr. Morrison’s research interest lies in the nature of cell communication and the mis-wiring of signaling pathways in disease and ageing. Her research group is specifically interested in delineating the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration and in disease mechanisms for disorders of myelinating cells. These disease areas represent a great medical need and Dr. Morrison collaborates nationally and internationally with the aim to perform translational work in each area. Dr. Morrison has worked and collaborated on NF2 research for more than 15 years, focusing her efforts on dissecting merlin’s mechanism of action.
