SIOP-Europe DIPG Network Meeting, Barcelona, Spain (Thursday 23rd – Friday 24th February 2012)

Clinicians and scientists interested in DIPG across Europe met recently in Barcelona to discuss collaborative efforts to develop clinical trials and biological studies in this terrible disease. Chris Jones and Katy Taylor, a PhD student in his lab focusing on DIPG, attended the meeting and presented on the progress of the DIPG Genomics Repository. There is much enthusiasm for developing this resource given the rarity of the tumour, and we are carrying out a census of DIPG samples, data and ongoing research throughout the continent in order to identify opportunities to work together to speed up progress on a multinational basis.

Chris Jones

DIPG Consensus Conference, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda MD, USA

At a recent retreat organised by Kathy Warren at the NCI, Maryam Fouladi and Chris Jones presented the International DIPG Registry and Genomics Repository to a select group of paediatric neuro-oncologists, neurosurgeons, neuropathologists, neuroradiologists and basic scientists. There was considerable enthusiasm for collecting published (and unpublished) genome-wide data within a single resource in order to allow investigators world-wide the opportunity to probe a large series of these rare tumours in order to better define the molecular alterations driving this disease. We hope this Repository is the first step in accumulating this data and providing such a framework for international collaboration and progress with understanding the underlying biology of DIPG.

The Cure Starts Now Foundation agrees to support the DIPG Genomics Repository

We are pleased to announce that The Cure Starts Now Foundation has approved funding of US$120,000 towards the establishment of an International DIPG Registry, of which the DIPG Genomics Repository will form an integral part. We would like to thanks all those involved in the Consortium for their hard work in putting this together, and in particular Maryam Fouladi, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, for co-ordinating the effort.

Michael Baudis, Andre von Büren, Chris Jones
DIPG Genomics Repository Leads