Newswise — LOS ANGELES (January 28, 2016) – Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) has named Jaclyn Biegel, PhD, a leading academic expert on pediatric brain tumors, rhabdoid tumors and cancer cytogenetics, as the director of the Center for Personalized Medicine at CHLA.
Biegel, who formerly served as director of the Cancer Cytogenetics Laboratory at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a professor of Pediatrics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, is a Professor of Pathology (Clinical Scholar) at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, and also serves as chief of CHLA’s new Division of Genomic Medicine in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
“Dr. Biegel is one of the world’s leading authorities on the molecular genetics of pediatric brain tumors and brings to CHLA an established, outstanding track record in applied genetic research relevant to pediatric disease,” says Alexander R. Judkins, MD, FRCP (Edin), executive director of the Center for Personalized Medicine and pathologist-in-chief at CHLA. “We are thrilled to have her join our Center, where she will lead and cultivate a multi-disciplinary team of physicians, laboratorians, bioinformaticians, and scientists and supporting clinical experts at CHLA to build specialized, targeted health care plans for children based on their individual genomes.”
Biegel is overseeing the development and implementation of new genomic tests for diagnosis and risk assessment for children and families with a variety of genetic disorders and cancer, and is collaborating in multidisciplinary research with clinical teams at CHLA and at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
The mission of CHLA’s Center for Personalized Medicine is to unravel the genetic basis of disease and set new standards for using genetic profiles to effectively diagnose, treat and care for children. Biegel’s expertise in identifying the risk factors and genetic triggers that predispose patients to certain diseases is helping advance the long-term promise of personalized medicine: therapies, even cures, for diseases that currently have no treatment. And as chief of CHLA’s new Division of Genomic Medicine, Biegel says her team supports the hospital’s Division of Medical Genetics to provide tools that help deliver superior on-site patient care and forge multi-institutional collaborations in the genomics of childhood disease.
“I am very excited to be part of a team that is at the forefront of this revolution in modern medicine,” Biegel says. “CHLA is a top-tier medical facility that has made personalized medicine a priority. We have recruited an outstanding group of faculty in clinical laboratory genetics and bioinformatics and are well-positioned to launch clinical exome-based testing and comprehensive pediatric cancer gene panels within the next few months.”
Biegel is well known for her work with rhabdoid tumors, an extremely rare and aggressive form of cancer that can affect the brain, kidney and other soft tissues in children and infants. Over her academic career, Biegel has played a major role in developing state-of-the-art diagnostic genetic tests for children with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. At The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Biegel’s lab was the first in the U.S. to provide high-resolution genomic single nucleotide polymorphism array studies for children with cancer on a clinical basis. Her laboratory first described that genetic abnormalities in the SMARCB1 gene can predispose children to rhabdoid tumor, and demonstrated that specific genetic alterations in chromosome band 7q34 result in novel gene fusions involving BRAF that characterize the vast majority of low grade gliomas of the brain in children.
“Understanding the cytogenetic and molecular makeup of bone marrow and tissue samples from children diagnosed with bone marrow failure, leukemia and solid tumors is important both in helping clinicians make the appropriate diagnosis and also in determining prognosis and appropriate treatment planning,” says Biegel, who earned her PhD in Human Genetics from the University of Pittsburgh and also served as Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Cancer Genetics. About 25 percent of patients with rhabdoid tumors, she explains, have no family history of cancer and yet are born with a genetic predisposition because they carry an abnormal SMARCB1 gene.
“Detailed molecular work-up for these children is crucial so they can be followed closely for additional tumors and their families can receive genetic counseling regarding risks for other family members who may have the same gene abnormality,” she says. “One of the goals of the Center is to provide this type of comprehensive genetic evaluation for all children with cancer.”
Collaboration between CHLA and USC clinical groups to inform clinical trials and research in the genetics of pediatric disease will enable the Center to become a premier personal medicine site – not just in Los Angeles and California, but nationally and globally as well.
“I hope to combine my experience in pediatric brain tumor research with the leading innovation and bench-to-bedside practices that underscore CHLA’s mission to save and improve the lives of children,” Biegel says.
About Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Children's Hospital Los Angeles has been named the best children’s hospital in California and among the top 10 in the nation for clinical excellence with its selection to the prestigious U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Children’s Hospital is home to The Saban Research Institute, one of the largest and most productive pediatric research facilities in the United States. Children’s Hospital is also one of America's premier teaching hospitals through its affiliation since 1932 with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
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