Precision Medicine in Childhood Central Nervous System Tumours

Biography

I am the GOSH Children's Charity Clinical Professor in Paediatric Neuro-Oncology at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and an Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. I previously worked at the Royal Marsden, London. I specialise in paediatric neuro-oncology (tumours of the brain and spine) and the development of new anti-cancer drugs for children and adolescents. I trained in the UK and Canada and I am a member of both national and international groups in the fields of paediatric neuro-oncology and drug development. I am the current Chair of the UK NCRI Children's Cancer Group and previous Chair of the SIOPE Brain Tumour working group and I am a Chief/ Principal Investigator of several completed, on-going and planned clinical trials in paediatric cancer. I am the Co-Chair of the The COllaborative Network for NEuro-oncology Clinical Trials (CONNECT) trial group. My research interests include: the biology of childhood malignant glioma, the use of innovative imaging techniques in childhood cancer and drug development of targeted therapies in childhood and adolescent oncology.

Research

My research group focuses on the application of precision medicine in childhood central nervous system tumours, with a specific interest in targets found in paediatric low and high grade glioma. I co-lead the CRUK funded Stratified Medicine Paediatrics programme and lead CRUK funded LOGGIC CORE bio-repository which both aim to molecularly profile relapsed childhood cancers and newly diagnosed low grade gliomas to identify appropriate targeted therapies.

We develop clinical trials of targeted therapies, with a recent focus on targeting the MAPK pathway, in childhood glioma and other childhood tumours such as neurofibromatosis type-1 associated plexiform neurofibroma and histiocytosis. We have develop and run multiple trials of small molecule inhibitors.

We are also collaborating with colleagues at UCL to investigate immuno-oncology and cellular therapies including CAR-T cell therapy approaches in paediatric brain tumours and the role of senescence in tumourgenesis and the tumour microenvironment.

We are investigating the role of advanced tumour imaging in response and follow up of childhood brain tumours and how we can integrate clinical, molecular and imaging data to improve current biomarkers of response, prognostication and long term follow up including functional outcomes.

UCL Appointments

• Clinical Professor of Paediatric Neuro-Oncology
  University College London, Developmental Biology & Cancer Dept

Degrees

• Doctor of Medicine
  University of London, 2010
• Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
  Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2003
• Member of the Royal College of Physicians
  Royal College of Physicians, 1995
• Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery
  University of Leeds, 1991

Fields of Research

• Oncology and carcinogenesis
• Neurosciences
• Clinical sciences
• Cognitive and computational psychology
• Paediatrics
• Reproductive medicine

Professor Darren Hargrave

Clinical Professor of Paediatric Neuro-Oncology
Developmental Biology & Cancer Dept
UCL GOS Institute of Child Health

Email: d.hargrave@ucl.ac.uk

Professor Darren Hargrave's UCL Profiles page