Ironmatt Medical Advisory Committee
IronMatt’s Medical Advisory Committee is dedicated to finding viable treatments for pediatric brain tumors. Volunteering their time, the MAC provides crucial medical knowledge to the Board and acts as the peer reviewers for all grant submissions.
Pediatric Neuro-Oncology | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Matthias Karajannis is a pediatric neuro-oncologist who has cared for children with brain tumors, spinal cord tumors, and neurofibromatosis for two decades. As Chief of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering, he leads one of the busiest programs in the country.
His team is committed to young patients with brain tumors and driven to accelerate progress in the way we diagnose and care for them. Dr. Karajannis is an NIH-funded clinical investigator, with a special interest in translational research and developing novel, molecular-targeted therapies. Areas of investigation include clinical trials, translational research, precision medicine including “liquid biopsies”, and molecularly targeted therapies.
Dr. Karajannis provides scientific leadership within national and international clinical trials cooperative groups including the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), NF Clinical Trials Consortium (NFCTC), and Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC). He currently serves as the study chair for pediatric neuro-oncology clinical trials within these consortia.
Dr. Karajannis received his MS from New York University School of Medicine and his MD from Free University Berlin. He completed his residency in Pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center.
Radiation Oncology, Yale New Haven Health
Dr. Ranjit S. Bindra is a physician-scientist at the Yale School of Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 1998, and both his MD and PhD from the Yale School of Medicine in 2007.
He completed his medical internship, radiation oncology residency, and post-doctoral research studies at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in 2012. During his time at MSKCC, he was mentored under Dr. Suzanne Wolden in the Department of Radiation Oncology, which has largely shaped his interest in developing new therapeutics for pediatric cancers.
Dr. Bindra is also very active on social media (@ranjitbindra) as both a patient and science advocate, with an interest in garnering support for cancer research, and in educating the community about the latest treatment options that are available.
He has successfully translated several discoveries from his own laboratory directly into clinical trials, including therapies for pediatric brain tumors. Dr. Bindra is also an active biotechnology entrepreneur, having founded five companies, with an interest in developing novel therapeutics specifically for pediatric cancers.
Senior Vice President, Research | Mozart Therapeutics
Dr. Courtney Crane is the Senior Vice President of Research at Mozart Therapeutics. Previously an Associate Professor at the University of Washington, she established and mentored a research team that developed novel cell therapy platforms using gene-edited natural killer cells and macrophages for the delivery of several classes of soluble proteins, including cytokines, bispecific T cell engagers, and full-length antibodies.
During this time, she established several industry-sponsored research programs and successfully out-licensed multiple technologies developed in her lab to a publicly traded biotech company.
Dr. Crane received her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Virginia under the mentorship of Dr. Margo Roberts and completed her postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco, studying the dysregulation of immune responses in brain tumors with Drs. Lewis Lanier and Andrew Parsa before starting an independent research program as academic faculty.
She is an author of over 30 peer-reviewed publications and patents and continues her role as strategic advisor for public and privately-held biotechnology industry partners.
Pediatric Hematology-Oncology | Columbia University Medical Center
Dr. James H. Garvin is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York. He is an expert on ependymoma and infant brain tumors. He is the principal investigator at Columbia for the Head Start Consortium.
Dr. Garvin received his MD from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, completing medical training as a resident at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and fellow at the Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Neuropathology, NYU Langone Health
Section Chief, Pediatric Neuro-Oncology,
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics | Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine | HMH Hackensack
University Medical Center
Dr. Derek Hanson is the Section Chief of Pediatric Neuro-oncology at the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital at Hackensack University Medical Center. He completed his pediatric neuro-oncology fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Hanson’s clinical research interests include developing early phase clinical trials for pediatric brain tumors and treatment protocols for ETMR. His pediatric neuro-oncology lab focuses on translational research to bring new therapies for ETMR and ependymoma from the bench to the bedside.
The Hospital for Sick Children/Research Institute | University of Toronto
Dr. Cynthia Hawkins obtained her Ph.D. in 1996 and her MD in 1997 from the University of Western Ontario. She completed her residency training in neuropathology at the University of Toronto in 2002, including a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Zurich.
Dr. Hawkins joined The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) as a neuropathologist in 2002. She is a Senior Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute and a Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at The University of Toronto.
Dr. Hawkins’ clinical practice includes both surgical and autopsy pediatric neuropathology. She is best known for her expertise in pediatric brain tumors and has a research lab devoted to pediatric astrocytoma. Her research interests include molecular pathogenesis and therapeutics for pediatric glioma and clinical implementation of novel diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic markers for pediatric brain tumors.
The Hawkins laboratory has published seminal work regarding genetic characterization of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) as well the clinical implications of mutant histones in pediatric astrocytoma.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics & Oncology | Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
George Jallo, M.D., Professor of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics and Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine, joined the staff in September 2015 as Director, Hough Family Institute for Brain Protection Sciences (IBPS) at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital(JHACH) in St Petersburg Florida. The institute brings together a comprehensive team of neurosurgeons, neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, developmental pediatricians, sports medicine and physiatrists who care for pediatric neurological disorders and conditions.
His areas of expertise include tumors of the brain and spinal cord, intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring for eloquent tumors, use of minimally invasive technologies such as endoscopy and keyhole surgery. His laboratory was one of the first in the world to create the models for both brainstem and spinal cord tumors in small animals.
Eileen Stark, MSN, CPNP
Clinical Scientist | Cellectics, Inc.
Since 2005, Eileen Stark has been a Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Nurse Practitioner in the Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplant at the Children’s Hospital of New York Presbyterian, Columbia University.
There, she provides comprehensive care and support for children with brain and spinal cord tumors, supporting the journey from aggressive lifesaving treatment to palliative and end-of-life care.
Her primary research interest is how nutrition affects therapies and outcomes of children with brain tumors. Other areas of interest include complementary / alternative medicine in pediatric oncology, including nutrition, supplements, massage, acupuncture, essential oils, and aroma therapy.
She recently took a position as a clinical scientist at Cellectics where she uses her 20 years of expertise in gene editing to research the immune system’s ability to target and eradicate cancer cells.
Radiation Oncology | St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Dr. Christopher Tinkle is a pediatric radiation oncologist focused on improveing the outcomes and reducing the treatment-associated morbidity of children and adolescents with cancer.
To this end, his research interests are focused on the application of advancing molecular understanding of cancer initiation, progression and treatment resistance, as well as the susceptibility to therapy-related toxicity to better inform clinical trial development, risk stratification, and cancer therapy application. Specific research interests include brain tumors and sarcomas.
Pediatric Neuro-Oncology, Scientist | Seattle Children's
Dr. Nick Vitanza is a physician-scientist who focuses on rapidly advancing novel therapeutics for children with fatal CNS tumors.
He completed fellowships in pediatric oncology (New York University) and pediatric neuro-oncology (Stanford University). At Seattle Children’s, he cares for patients with high-grade central nervous system (CNS) tumors, such as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and diffuse midline glioma (DMG).
He serves as the Scientific Director of the Brain Tumor Research Program and the CNS CAR T cell Lead. Clinically, he has written and overseen multiple intracranially dosed CNS CAR T cell trials, including BrainChild-01 through BrainChild-04 that have enrolled over 150 patients and delivered more than 800 intracranial CAR T cell doses.
In the Lab, his team focuses on the biologic and immunologic targeting of fatal CNS tumors. They have made biopsy-derived DIPG models they share internationally, identified epigenetic vulnerabilities of these tumors, and worked to optimize cellular therapeutics. Dr. Vitanza is an NIH-funded scientist with publications in Cancer Cell, Neuro-Oncology, Cancer Discovery, and Nature Medicine. He values multi-institutional collaboration, which he has had advocated for at a White House Summit on DIPG and through multiple international working groups.
Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, University of Colorado
