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Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor of children. New approaches to treatment are needed, because current treatment can cause brain injury and fails too many patients. Some medulloblastomas are driven by excessive activity of a signaling pathway called SHH, and for these patients, SHH-pathway inhibitors may offer new hope. Drugs that target an SHH-pathway protein called SMO work against other cancers in other parts of the body. However, medulloblastomas rapidly become resistant when treated with SMO inhibitors.

As the recipient of the Miracles for Michael St. Baldrick's Research Grant, Dr. Sokolsky-Papkov will make SHH-targeted therapy newly effective for medulloblastoma using two innovations. She will use a new combination of two FDA-approved drugs, vismodegib and palbociclib. These inhibitors disrupt two different points in the pathway connecting SHH signaling to tumor growth, preventing resistance that can develop when either drug is administered alone. Furthermore, she has developed a method of packaging these drugs into tiny particles called nanoparticle micelles, which can deliver increased amounts of each drug into brain tumors. Dr. Sokolsky-Papkov hypothesizes that the combination of palbociclib and vismodegib, delivered for the first time in nanoparticle micelles, will advance brain tumor treatment and bring new effectiveness to medulloblastoma therapy.

This grant is named for the Miracles for Michael Fund created in memory of Michael Orbany who was diagnosed with medulloblastoma when he was six years old. Even through treatment and relapse, Michael had unwavering faith and perseverance, wanting most to make others happy. This fund honors his tremendous strength to never ever give up.