Newswise — Neuro-oncologist Miriam Bornhorst, MD, was awarded $3.7 million through the program to advance precision diagnosis of brain tumors in children. The will be the first to apply a molecular testing technology called optical genome mapping (OGM) to achieve faster and more comprehensive diagnosis of brain tumors, so treatment can be tailored to the specific genetic changes that drive tumor growth. If successful, Lurie Children’s aims to implement this innovative clinical test by the end of the five-year study.
“We will use optical genome mapping for molecular diagnosis of brain tumors, which is a new application of this technology specifically designed to detect structural variants, meaning large changes within the single long strands of DNA that affect function,” said Dr. Bornhorst. “Currently, the genomic testing performed on brain tumors focuses on small changes within individual genes. Adding the new test will inform us about larger changes to the whole gene and the genes that surround it. This will allow us to receive more robust test results so that we can initiate treatment earlier and do so with greater precision.” Read more.
Lurie Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders recently became the only pediatric center in Illinois to perform lipoprotein apheresis in pediatric patients with certain disorders following kidney transplantation. The Therapeutic Apheresis program, directed by Jennifer Schneiderman, MD, MS, also is known for performing “blood free” collections on the smallest of patients and extracorporeal photopheresis in low weight patients.
Dr. Schneiderman specializes in apheresis along with stem cell transplant and cellular therapies. She is internationally known for her research and work in the field of transplant tolerance utilizing extracorporeal photopheresis. She is the current Vice President of the American Society for Apheresis and will be President from 2026 to 2027. The clinical team consists of one additional physician (Veronika Polishchuk, MD), three specialty nurses adept at extracorporeal therapies (Shauna Gedraitis, Ayrey Sison, and Kylea McMillan), and a nurse specializing in quality management (Ellen Byrnes).
Overall, the team performs on average 300 procedures annually on patients of all ages and sizes, including peripheral blood stem cell collections for both autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant, immune effector cell collections for CAR-T therapies, extracorporeal photopheresis for the treatment of graft-versus-host disease and rejection after solid organ transplant, and automated red blood cell exchange for patients with sickle cell disease.
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