Technique and Technology: Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs)

Lukas Chavez is an Associate Professor at the Sanford Burnham Prebys. He is also the Director of the Clayes Research Center for Neuro-Oncology at the Institute for Genomic Medicine at the Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego. In this role, he works with a team of physicians and scientists to capture genomic, transcriptomic, epigenetic and functional data from pediatric brain tumor patients, and uses this information to improve diagnosis and treatment. His research interests focus on structural variants as well as circular extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in childhood cancers. These extrachromosomal DNA circles are frequently found in highly aggressive solid tumors and represent a new target for improved therapeutic approaches.

Education

2010: PhD, Free University, Berlin

Honors and Recognition

2020: St. Baldrick’s Scholar Award, St. Baldrick’s Foundation
2019: Award of Excellence in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology, Society of Neuro-Oncology
2012–2015: Feodor-Lynen Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers, Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation

Related Disease
Brain Cancer, Cancer

Phenomena or Processes
Cancer Biology, Cancer Epigenetics, Chromosome Dynamics, Combinatorial Therapies, Gene Regulation, Genomic Instability, Oncogenes, Transcriptional Regulation

Anatomical Systems and Sites
Brain

Research Models
Clinical and Transitional Research, Computational Modeling, Cultured Cell Lines, Human, Human Cell Lines, Mouse

Techniques and Technologies
Bioinformatics, Cell Biology, Computational Biology, Computational Modeling, Gene Expression, Gene Silencing, Genomics, Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs)