2003 NREF/American Brain Tumor Association
Research Fellow

John S. Kuo, MD, PhD
University of Toronto
University of Southern California

Development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for medulloblastoma based on a novel tumor-specific gene, OPL

Recent advances reveal clues to the molecular pathogenesis of medulloblastoma, the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor. Studies of rare human tumor syndromes implicate Sonic Hedgehog activation of a transcriptional program involving the novel Odd-Paired-Like (OPL) protein. OPL is specifically expressed in both cerebellar granule cells and medulloblastoma, suggesting that granule cells give rise to these tumors. I propose to use PCR-based subtractive cloning to discover OPL-activated genes that could serve as potential therapeutic targets. I also plan to develop an OPL expression assay for use in tumor grading, and for early detection of metastases to assist clinical management.

Click here to view  Final Report  (PDF 19KB)

About Dr. Kuo

Dr. Kuo immigrated to New York City from Taiwan, and attended Hunter H.S. and The Bronx H.S. of Science. While in high school, he completed a microbial genetics project studying genetic recombination at the City College of New York, and placed Fifth in the National Westinghouse Science Talent Search. Accepted at Harvard University as a National Merit Scholar and Harvard National Scholar, he graduated with summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors. As an undergraduate in Prof. Kleckner's lab at Harvard's biochemistry department, he received support from the Ford Foundation for molecular biology research on transposable genetic elements for his senior thesis, which received highest honors and was published in Genetics. Dr. Kuo was then awarded a National Institutes of Health Medical Scientist Training Program Fellowship to pursue both MD and PhD degrees. In 1998, he simultaneously earned an MD from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) of Harvard Medical School, and a PhD degree from MIT's Dept. of Biology. At MIT's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, he received funding for work with Prof. Sive to clone and identify many novel genes involved in early development of the nervous system. These studies contributed to the study of neural development, stem cell biology, neurogenesis and tumorigenesis. He was inducted into Sigma Xi (Research Society of North America), and gave numerous invited national and international presentations.

The seed for Dr. Kuo's neurosurgery career was planted by Profs. Jenkins and Gehrke in introductory HST neuroanatomy, and then was nurtured by mentors at the Brigham & Women's and Massachusetts General Hospitals (Profs. Black, Scott, Stieg, Ogilvy and Cosgrove). At the University of Southern California, Profs. Weiss, Apuzzo, McComb and Giannotta trained him in clinical neurosurgery. For the NREF fellowship, Dr. Kuo is sponsored by Prof. Rutka at the University of Toronto's Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre for translational research in medulloblastoma diagnosis and treatment.

Dr. Kuo is married to the love of his life, Linda, an immunologist. He is made whole by her wonderful sense of humor, patience, and support. They are looking forward to further adventures together.