Youngblood Mark W

My scientific interest is in genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying brain tumors, with a particular focus on translation of molecular insights into improved patient care. Beginning as a graduate student, I have sought to understand the relationship of specific genomic alterations with clinical phenotypes, including prognosis and response to targeted chemotherapies. I hope to leverage discoveries regarding the formation and progression of brain tumors into improved clinical management, such as identification of tractable biomarkers, as well as precision medicines that exploit epigenetic vulnerabilities. My graduate work focused primarily on meningiomas, the most common primary brain tumor, and a disease for which invasive and risky neurosurgical procedures remain the primary treatment. Using integrated approaches, our team identified new genomic and epigenetic mechanisms involved in the formation of approximately one-third of these lesions, as well as important pathways that underlie progression of low-grade to high-grade tumors. This work was partially funded by an NIH F30 grant that I received for three years, and resulted in several publications that are discussed below. Since graduating medical school in 2019, I am currently training as a neurosurgery resident at Northwestern, and continue to work closely with new collaborators on the study of brain tumors. Based on close collaborations between basic scientists, neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists at our institution, as well as a large population of brain tumor patients in our health care system, we are well-poised for rapid translation of new insights into improved patient care.